MUNICH, Germany — During the Hannover fair (April 21 through April 25), the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS) will organize the RoboCup German Open robot soccer tournament. More than 80 teams from 15 countries are expected to show their achievements in sensor and actor technology as well as data processing including Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The play-off will be organized in a senior group, divided into nine leagues, and a junior group with three leagues. The senior leagues include categories such as small- and middle-sized league, four-legged and humanoid (2-legged) league, a rescue-robot league, and a mixed reality competition. The junior league embraces the categories RoboSoccer, RoboDance and RoboRescue.

In the mid-size league, for instance, the robots move on wheels; four players and a goalkeeper play against normal soccer goals on a field measuring 20 by 14 meters. The robots have to act completely autonomously. Equipped with cameras and real-time image processing, the robots move at speeds up to 2 meters per second.

In the humanoid league, created in 2005, biped robots are playing against each other. "These humanoid robots have made great progress during the past years," said Ansgar Bredenfeld who manages the event at IAIS. "Just like real soccer players, they fall over and stand up, find the ball autonomously and, hopefully, they score goals."

But the RoboCup is not only for soccer. In the RoboCup@Home, created 2006, service robots have to solve typical homework tasks such as find and open a fridge, collect garbage and recognize persons. In the RoboCop Rescue League, rescue robots are sent through a show-jumping course.

"The RoboCup generates an enormous technology thrust that otherwise could not be achieved," said IAIS managing director Stefan Wrobel. "Many components originally designed for robot soccer are now found in different applications such as the localization technology for inspection robots. Lawn-mowing robots and deep sea research robots typically use technology developed for soccer robots.

The play-offs and technology demos will take place in hall 25 at the Hannover fairground.

This year's robot soccer world cup will take place from July 13 through July 20 in Suzhou, China.