About Us

History

1993
The Birth of an Idea

In June 1993, a group of researchers, including Minoru Asada, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Hiroaki Kitano, decided to launch a robot competition, tentatively named the Robot J-League (J-League is the name of the newly established Japanese Professional soccer league). Within a month, however, they received overwhelming reactions from researchers outside of Japan, requesting that the initiative be extended as an international joint project. Accordingly, they renamed the project as the Robot World Cup Initiative, “RoboCup” for short.

1995
RoboCup Announcement

During the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-95) held at Montreal, Canada, August, 1995, the announcement was made to organise the First Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences in conjunction with IJCAI-97 Nagoya.

1999
RoboCup Junior Australia Launched in Australia

RoboCup-99 in Stockholm exhibited the first interactive RoboCupJunior workshops

1997
The First RoboCup

The first official RoboCup games and conference was held in 1997 in Nagoya, Japan with great success. Over 40 teams participated (real and simulation combined), and over 5,000 spectators attended. RoboCup was initially a university project, and it would not be until later that school students were involved.

2000
The First Junior Competition
Melbourne, Victoria

In the year 2000, the first international RoboCup Junior competition was held in Melbourne, Australia. The format was devised by a group of teachers and industry representatives. There were three challenges – dance, sumo, and soccer.

2001
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2001
Melbourne, Victoria

RoboCup Junior 2001 was held as part of Interact 2001 and was an open international competition as well as the finals for RCJA’s national competition. It was the first year to host State selection events before the National event in Melbourne. State committees were established in every state along the Eastern Seaboard of Australia. Over 200 teams and almost 1000 students competed in Australia in 2001.

2002
RoboCup Junior Australia Display for The Golden Jubilee Tour Adelaide 2002
Queen Elizabeth II saw RoboCupJunior in Australia

During a recent visit to Australia in February, Queen Elizabeth II went to the Technology School of the Future in Adelaide and was able to see RoboCupJunior for the first time.

Students from Unley High School, (pictured) demonstrated a robot soccer game and then explained to the Queen how the robots find the ball and determine which way they are kicking. She was impressed with such young students being able to achieve the complexity of programming and high level of engineering in their robots. The Queen was also entertained by a performance of a team of choreographed dancing robots. Students from Smithfield Plains Primary school were excited at the opportunity to show their skills off to royalty and the international press entourage.

2002
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2002
Melbourne, Victoria

Max Striker Club was launched for members to download “heaps of cool free stuff” and enter competitions.

RoboCup State events were held in all States and ACT. The Australian competition has expanded to 464 teams with 160 teams competing at the Interact National Finals.

Did you know that instead of a silver can, robots had to rescue a Cadbury Yowie from Australia!

2003
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2003
Brisbane, Queensland
2004
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2004
Brisbane, Queensland
2005
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2005
Sydney, New South Wales
2006
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2006
Sydney, New South Waless
2007
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2007
Perth, Western Australia
2008
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2008
Gold Coast, Queensland
2009
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2009
Sydney, New South Wales
2010
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2010
Canberra, Australian Captial Territory
2011
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2011
Hobart, Tasmania

2012
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2012
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
2013
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2013
Brisbane, Queensland
2014
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2014
Brisbane, Queensland
2015
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2015
Adelaide, South Australia
2016
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2016
Sydney, New South Wales
2017
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2017
Brisbane, Queensland
2018
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2018
Melbourne, Victoria
2019
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2019
Melbourne, Victoria
2020
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2020 (Cancelled)
No events were held in person in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic
2021
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2021
Virtual Competition due to the COVID-19 Pandemic
2022
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2022
Adelaide, South Australia
2023
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2023
Melbourne, Victoria
2024
RoboCup Junior Australia National Event 2024
Brisbane, Queensland

A video history of the university-level RoboCup challenges.

Our Sponsors

Platinum National Sponsor

University Affiliations