RoboCup Standard Platform League

The RoboCup Standard Platform League (SPL) is one of several leagues within RoboCup,^[1] an international competition with autonomous robotic soccer matches as the main event.

rUNSWift in a four-legged league game from RoboCup 2006 in Bremen, Germany.

A Nao robot of the SPL team B-Human, RoboCup 2016 in Leipzig, Germany

Overview

In the Standard Platform League all teams use identical (i.e., standard) robots,^[2] allowing the teams concentrate on software development rather than the mechanics of robots.^[3] The robots operate fully autonomously; i.e., there is no remote control by either humans or computers during the games.

The League began as the Sony Four-Legged League in 1999 using the Sony AIBO. Initially a small number of teams were invited to join the league. In 2002, the league was opened and teams were allowed to apply through a qualification process. After Sony announced that it would discontinue production of the AIBO in 2006, the League searched for a new platform and decided on the Aldebaran Robotics humanoid NAO. In 2008, the League ran both AIBOs and Naos and was renamed the Standard Platform League. From 2009, only the Naos were used.

History

Summaries of previous World Championships^[4]

Year (Robot)	Host	Final			Third Place Match			Number of Teams
		Winners	Score	Runners-up	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
1999 (AIBO)	Stockholm - Sweden	LRP  France	4-1	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	CMPack  United States
2000 (AIBO)	Melbourne - Australia	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	10-0	LRP  France	CMPack  United States
2001 (AIBO)	Seattle - USA	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	9-2	CMPack  United States
2002 (AIBO)	Fukuoka/Busan - Japan/Korea Archived 2005-08-14 at the Wayback Machine	CMPack  United States	3-3 (2-1)	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	NUbots  Australia
2003 (AIBO)	Padua - Italy	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	4-3	UPennalizers  United States	NUbots  Australia	4-1	CMPack  United States
2004 (AIBO)	Lisbon - Portugal	GermanTeam  Germany	5-3	UTS Unleashed! Archived 2010-05-23 at the Wayback Machine  Australia	NUbots  Australia	5-4	UPennalizers  United States	23
2005 (AIBO)	Osaka - Japan	GermanTeam  Germany	4-3 (2-2)	NUbots  Australia	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	8-0	CMDash  United States	24
2006 (AIBO)	Bremen - Germany	NUbots  Australia	7-3	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	Microsoft Hellhounds  Germany	6-0	GermanTeam  Germany	24
2007 (AIBO)	Atlanta - USA	Northern Bites  United States	5-1	NUbots  Australia	CMDash  United States	3-3 (6-5)	WrightEagle  China	24
2008 (AIBO)	Suzhou - China Archived 2019-04-17 at the Wayback Machine	GermanTeam  Germany	5-0	UTS-USTC WrightEagle Unleashed!  China  Australia	Northern Bites  United States	3-1	UT Austin Villa  United States	10
2008 (Nao)		NUManoids  Australia  Ireland	1-0 (0-0)	GTCMUnited  United States	Kouretes  Greece	1-0 (0-0)	Humboldt  Germany	15
2009 (Nao)	Graz - Austria	B-Human,  Germany	5-0	Northern Bites  United States	Nao Devils Dortmund  Germany	4-1	UT Austin Villa  United States	24
2010 (Nao)	Singapore	B-Human,  Germany	6-1	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	UT Austin Villa  United States	5-1	CMurfs  United States	23
2011 (Nao)	Istanbul - Turkey	B-Human,  Germany	11-1	Nao Devils Dortmund  Germany	NTU Robot PAL  Republic of China	4-2	Nao-Team HTWK  Germany	27 [5]
2012 (Nao)	Mexico City - Mexico Archived 2011-09-24 at the Wayback Machine	UT Austin Villa  United States	4-2	B-Human,  Germany	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	11-1	Nao-Team HTWK  Germany	25 [6]
2013 (Nao)	Eindhoven - The Netherlands	B-Human,  Germany	6-2	Nao-Team HTWK,  Germany	UT Austin Villa  United States	4-0	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	22 [7]
2014 (Nao)	Joao Pessoa - Brazil	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	5-1	Nao-Team HTWK,  Germany	B-Human,  Germany	7-0	UChile  Chile	20[8]
2015 (Nao)	Hefei, China	UNSW Sydney  Australia	3-1	B-Human,  Germany	Nao-Team HTWK,  Germany	3-1	UChile  Chile	20[9]
2016 (Nao)	Leipzig, Germany[usurped]	B-Human,  Germany	3-0 (0-0)	UT Austin Villa  United States	Nao-Team HTWK,  Germany	4-1	UChile  Chile	24[10]
2017 (Nao)	Nagoya, Japan[usurped]	B-Human,  Germany	2-1	Nao-Team HTWK,  Germany	Nao Devils Dortmund  Germany	6-2	UT Austin Villa  United States	24[11]
2018 (Nao)	Montreal, Canada	Nao-Team HTWK,  Germany	1-0	B-Human,  Germany	TJArk,  China	2-0	HULKs  Germany	21[12]
2019 (Nao)	Sydney, Australia	B-Human,  Germany	2-1	Nao-Team HTWK,  Germany	rUNSWift (UNSW Sydney)  Australia	11-2	Nao Devils Dortmund  Germany	20[13]

Technical Challenges Results ^[4]

Year (Robot)	Host	First	Second	Third
1999 (AIBO)	Stockholm - Sweden	rUNSWift  Australia
2000 (AIBO)	Melbourne - Australia Archived 2009-04-28 at the Wayback Machine	rUNSWift  Australia
2001 (AIBO)	Seattle - USA	rUNSWift  Australia
2002 (AIBO)	Fukuoka/Busan Japan/Korea Archived 2005-08-14 at the Wayback Machine	rUNSWift  Australia
2003 (AIBO)	Padua - Italy		rUNSWift  Australia
2004 (AIBO)	Lisbon - Portugal	UTS Unleashed! Archived 2010-05-23 at the Wayback Machine  Australia	ARAIBO  Japan	ASURA  Japan
2005 (AIBO)	Osaka - Japan	Cerberus  Turkey	NUBots  Australia	ARAIBO  Japan and GermanTeam  Germany
2006 (AIBO)	Bremen - Germany	Microsoft Hellhounds  Germany	ASURA  Japan	Dutch AIBO Team  Netherlands
2007 (AIBO)	Atlanta - USA	GermanTeam  Germany	Jolly Pochie  Japan	UT Austin Villa  United States
2008 (AIBO)	Suzhou - China Archived 2019-04-17 at the Wayback Machine
2008 (Nao)
2009 (Nao)	Graz - Austria	B-Human  Germany and Nao-Team HTWK  Germany		Nao Devils  Germany and Nao Team Humboldt  Germany
2010 (Nao)	Singapore	rUNSWift  Australia	UT Austin Villa  United States	CMurfs  United States
2011 (Nao)	Istanbul - Turkey	RoboEireann  Ireland	Noxious-Kouretes  United Kingdom and  Greece	rUNSWift  Australia
2012 (Nao)	Mexico City - Mexico Archived 2011-09-24 at the Wayback Machine	Nao Team Humboldt  Germany	rUNSWift  Australia	B-Human  Germany
2013 (Nao)	Eindhoven - The Netherlands	B-Human  Germany	Nao-Team HTWK  Germany	Nao Devils Dortmund  Germany and rUNSWift  Australia
2014 (Nao)	Joao Pessoa - Brazil	B-Human  Germany	Austrian Kangaroos  Austria	HULKs  Germany
2015 (Nao)	Hefei, China	B-Human  Germany	Nao Devils  Germany	WrightOcean  China
2016 (Nao)	Leipzig, Germany[usurped]	Nao Devils  Germany	HULKs  Germany	B-Human  Germany

Drop-In Competition Results ^[4]

Year	Host	First	Second	Third	Best Drop-In Only Team
2014	Joao Pessoa - Brazil	B-Human  Germany	Nao-Team HTWK  Germany	Nao Devils Dortmund  Germany	UnBeatables  Brazil
2015	Hefei, China	Nao-Team HTWK  Germany	B-Human  Germany	Nao Devils Dortmund  Germany	UnBeatables  Brazil
2016	Leipzig, Germany[usurped]	B-Human  Germany	Nao-Team HTWK  Germany	UT Austin Villa  United States	UnBeatables  Brazil

League Photos

2014

A group photo of all teams participating in RoboCup SPL 2014

2013

A group photo of all teams participating in RoboCup SPL 2013

Robots on display for the Queen of The Netherlands at RoboCup 2013

2012

A group photo of all teams participating in RoboCup SPL 2012

2011

A group photo of all teams participating in RoboCup SPL 2011

2010

A group photo of all teams participating in RoboCup SPL 2010

2009

A group photo of all teams participating in RoboCup SPL 2009

Founders of the League^[14]

• Hiroaki Kitano, RoboCup Federation
• Manuela Veloso, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
• Masahiro Fujita, Sony Corporation, Japan
• Minoru Asada, Osaka University, Japan
• Dominique Duhaut, Université de Bretagne Sud, France

Rules

• RoboCup SPL Rules ^[4]

Year	Robots	Team size	Field Size	Walls	Beacons	Ball	Goals	Lighting
1999	AIBO ERS-110	3	180 cm × 280 cm	Yes	6	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2000	AIBO ERS-110	3	180 cm × 280 cm	Yes	6	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2001	AIBO ERS-210	3	180 cm × 280 cm	Yes	6	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2002	AIBO ERS-210	4	270 cm × 420 cm	Yes	6	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2003	AIBO ERS-210A SuperCore	4	270 cm × 420 cm	Yes	6	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2004	AIBO ERS-7	4	270 cm × 420 cm	Yes	4	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2005	AIBO ERS-7	4	400 cm x 600 cm	No	4	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2006	AIBO ERS-7	4	400 cm x 600 cm	No	4	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2007	AIBO ERS-7	4	400 cm x 600 cm	No	4	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2008	AIBO ERS-7	5	400 cm x 600 cm	No	2	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2008	NAO V2	2	440 cm x 680 cm	No	0	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2009	NAO V3	3	540 cm x 740 cm	No	0	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2010	NAO V3 Plus	3	540 cm x 740 cm	No	0	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2011	Nao V3.3	4	540 cm x 740 cm	No	0	Orange	Blue & Yellow	Even & Bright
2012	Nao 4	4	540 cm x 740 cm	No	0	Orange	Yellow	Even & Bright
2013	Nao 4	5	600 cm x 900 cm	No	0	Orange	Yellow	Even & Bright
2014	Nao 4 or Nao 5	5 + Coach	600 cm x 900 cm	No	0	Orange	Yellow	Even & Bright
2015	Nao 4 or Nao 5	5 + Coach	600 cm x 900 cm	No	0	Orange	White	Even & Bright
2016	Nao 4 or Nao 5	5 + Coach	600 cm x 900 cm	No	0	Black and White	White	Even & Bright
2017	Nao 4 or Nao 5	5 + Coach	600 cm x 900 cm	No	0	Black and White	White	Natural elements
2018	Nao 4 or Nao 5	5	600 cm x 900 cm	No	0	Black and White	White	Natural elements
2019	Nao 6 or earlier	5	600 cm x 900 cm	No	0	Black and White	White	Natural elements

Robots

1999–2008 Sony AIBO.^[15]

2008–present Aldebaran Robotics humanoid NAO robots.^[16]

Technologies

Main article: Areas of robotics

Control of the robots relies on several areas of robotics, including ^[17]

• Adaptive control
• Artificial Intelligence
• Bayesian Learning Learning
• Classification and Clustering
• Computational Neuroscience
• Data Mining Techniques
• Digital Control
• Digital Image Processing
• Dimension reduction
• Evolutionary Computation
• Kalman Filter, Extended Kalman Filter
• Flexible Distribution functions
• Feedback Control and Regulation
• Manifold learning
• Motor Control and Legged Locomotion
• Neural Networks
• Reinforcement Learning
• Robot Programming
• Software Engineering
• Support Vector Machines
• Machine vision

See also

• Nao (robot)
• AIBO