RoboCup Junior

RoboCup Junior (RCJ), sometimes stylised RobocupJunior, is a division of RoboCup, a not-for-profit robotics organisation. It focuses on education and aims to introduce the larger goals of the RoboCup project (creating robots) to primary and secondary school aged children (technically up through age 19). Participants compete in one of three main leagues: Soccer, Rescue or Dance. Dance Theatre also exists as a sub-league of Dance, and Premier Rescue is part of the competition in Australia.

RoboCup Junior was invented and started back in 1998 with a demonstration held by Henrik Hautop Lund and Luigi Pagliarini at the RoboCup international competition held in Paris, France. In 1999, an interactive workshop and competition was held by Henrik Hautop Lund and Luigi Pagliarini at the RoboCup international competition in , Sweden. The following year in 2000, the first international RoboCup Junior competition was held in Melbourne, Australia.

Then-prime minister of Australia, John Howard, was impressed in 2001 when he visited students competing in a RoboCup Junior Australia competition, congratulating both teachers and students for their accomplishments.

Queen Elizabeth II was also impressed in 2002 on a trip to Australia, pointing out the complexity of what students were accomplishing.

Each year, an international competition is run around the same time, and at the same location, as the RoboCup competition. The location changes each year, and in the past has seen events held at:

Besides the international competition there are national and regional competitions around the world. Often teams have to qualify at their local competition to be admitted to the world championship. For example, in Germany, where RoboCup Junior is very popular, teams start on one of several qualification tournaments with over 300 teams, before advancing to the German Open and finally, the World Championships.

Two teams each place two robots (which they have designed and created) on a playing field. The aim of the game is for each team of robots to play a fully game of soccer. The robots detect the infrared-emitting ball and use this as well as other specialised sensors, such as sonars, compasses and cameras to locate themselves and the opposition's goal. These robots must each be able to fit into a cylinder which is 220 mm in diameter and height.

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