1. FIRA Robot World Cup France'98

As per the early registration, we have Eighty-nine (89) teams from 21 nations for the FIRA Robot World Cup France'98. Those who have not officially registered in Paris yet, are requested to do so at the earliest. Due to FIFA World Cup, we may face difficulties in booking rooms.

FIRA'98 Schedule
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June 30: 18.00 to 20.00 - Reception (rule meeting, discussion and team grouping).
July 1 : 08.30 to 09.30 - Opening ceremony.
July 3 : 16.00 to 17.30 - FIRA MiroSot final game.
17.30 to 18.00 - Closing ceremony (prize distribution).
19.00 to 21.00 - Banquet.

The Venue - La Cite
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La Cite is close to the La Villette stop on the subway line No. 7.
La Cite website: . For further information on Paris, please visit or .

FIRA Workshop
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The following information is being supplied in regard to the Workshop at the FIRA Robot World Cup in Paris, July 1998.

a) There be no formal workshop presentations.

b) Each team will present a poster presentation with brief information on robot hardware and strategy adopted for public display on their designated booth. For details, please visit the FIRA homepage at .

c) Each team will be required to write a paper of maximum length 6 pages and submit to Prof. Russel Stonier within 6 weeks after the competition for publication in the proceedings. For details visit FIRA homepage at .

d) Papers selected through a review process will be published in a special issues of the Journal of Robotics and Autonomous Systems and of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine.



2. FIRA Regional Championships'98: Results.

a) FIRA European Championship, Vienna, Austria.
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Team ranking:

1. STeam Engines : Switzerland
2. AUSTRO : Austria
3. ROGI II : Spain


b) FIRA North American Championship, Alaska, along with WAC'98.
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Team Ranking:

1. MIRO II : KAIST, Korea
2. Auusie Bandicooots : Australia
3. SMART : UNM, USA

c) FIRA South American Championship, Campinas, Brazil.
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Team Ranking:

1. BRAVO : CTI, Campinas
2. UNESP : Sao Paulo
3. FUTEPOLI : USP, Sao Paulo

d) The FIRA Asia-Pacific championship will be held from June 6 to 8, 1998 in Taejon, Korea.



3. FIRA Robot World Cup Brazil'99 (to be ratified in Paris).

FIRA will host the Robot World Cup at the Holambra city (25km from Campinas) in Brazil, from September 14 to 19 in 1999. The FIRA Regional/National
Championships will be held prior to the same to select the teams. Five categories of competitions will be held: MiroSot, S-MiroSot, NaroSot, RoboSot and S-KheperaSot.

The competitions will be held along with the Holambra party (trad-itional spring celebration), which attracts about 250,000 visitors every year. The following facilities will be available: parking lot for 3,000 vehicles, shuttle services from Campinas city and hotels to the competition venue and heliport point for the authorities. The auditorium can accommodate 10,000 people and has an 18(m) x 14(m) stage with two big television mosaic screens. Forty four (44) separate rooms will also be available for the participating teams.

Contact: Dr. Roberto Filho at
Prof. Kim Jong-Hwan at ,





4. FIRA Robot World Cup Australia 2000.

The FIRA Robot World Cup 2000 will be held as an exclusive event in Rockhampton Australia, during the Summer Olympic Games, in September. It is expected that teams from around 25-30 nations will compete in all categories of competition. Efforts are now underway to attract international conferences on intelligent systems and control to run in parallel with the competition. Efforts also will be made to obtain flight concession for the participants. It is hoped that through sponsorship, demonstration games by selected top teams will be held in the Olympic city, Sydney.

An agreement to this effect was signed on April 19, 1998 in Seoul by Prof. Kim Jong-Hwan, FIRA Executive President, and Prof. Russel Stonier, Chairman, FIRA Chapter, Rockhampton, Australia. A press conference was held in connection with, where in thirty foreign correspondents attended, including those from CNN, Newsweek, etc. Prof. Soderstrand, Prof. Stonier, Prof. Kim & Dr. Prahlad attended. Officials from the Australian embassy and the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) were also present.




5. APEC Youth Science Festival and Micro-Robot Soccer Championship.

FIRA will organize the APEC Micro-Robot Soccer Championship between August 16-18, 1998 in Seoul, `dedicated to the Young Scientists', along with the APEC Youth Science Festival. This will give an arena for young researchers & scientists working in the areas of robotics, image processing, AI, computer technology, sensor technology, etc., to test and share their research experiences on a competitive back-ground. We expect about 20 participant teams for the championship from 12 APEC member nations. For further details, please contact Professor Jong-Hwan Kim at .



6. Intelligent Automation & Softcomputing: MiroSot'97 Special Issue.

The Int. J. of Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing will publish a special issue on MiroSot'97 soon. Eight selected papers after journal review will appear in the same.



7. The World Bank officials and 5 African Nations' Ministerial Visit to the FIRA HQ.

On May 14, 1998 a 32 member delegation led by Education Ministers of 5 African Nations (Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Angola, Malawi, South Africa) and the World Bank officials (Human Development, Africa) visited FIRA Head-quarter. Dr. Prahlad briefed them on FIRA, and a MiroSot demonstration game between MIRO and SOTY, teams from KAIST,was arranged.



8. Visit of a Chinese Delegation from the Northeastern University

A high level delegation led by Prof. Xu Xinhe of North Eastern University visited FIRA Head-qarter on April 17, 1998. An agreement was made by and between the Control and Simulation Research Center, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Peoples Republic of China, and the Intelligent Control Laboratory of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Taejon, Republic of Korea. The agreement includes the following points with regard to FIRA.

Take part in and support the events of the Federation of International Robot-soccer Association, to push forward FIRA and, to invite and host the respective robot soccer teams, from the other side, for robot-soccer demonstration tours in Korea and China.



9. Int. Summer School on Robot Soccer Systems at KAIST.

Professor Kim Jong-Hwan will organize an Int. Summer School on Robot Soccer Systems at KAIST from July 13 to August 14, 1998. For further details, please visit the FIRA homepage at .



10. rt Sanderson's Article on MiroSot'97 in IEEE R&A Magazine.

Prof. A. Sanderson's article on MiroSot'97 is published in the IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine in its December 1997 issue. The above article has appeared in the Research Perspectives column on page 15. Prof. Sanderson is one of the FIRA Vice Presidents.

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FEDERATION OF INTERNATIONAL ROBOT-SOCCER ASSOCIATION
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Publisher: Zeungnam Bien Editor-in-Chief: Jong-Hwan Kim
(President, FIRA) (General Secretary, FIRA)

Associate Editors:
Chao Cheng Holger Haas Jeffrey Johnson
Krzysztof R. Kozlowski Amitabha Mukerjee Luca Odetti
Victor Romano Castillo Toledo Andon Topalov
Prahlad Vadakkepat Jing Wang

Dept. of Electrical Engineering, KAIST
373-1 Kusong-dong, Yusong-gu
Taejon 305-701, Korea
Tel: +82-42-869-3448
Fax: +82-42-869-8010

E-mail: fira@fira.net, mirosot@vivaldi.kaist.ac.kr
WWW: http://www.mirosot.org/, http://www.fira.net/
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[June 3, 1998]

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