Is that Robot Allowed to Play in Human Versus Robot Soccer Games - Laws of the Game for Achieving the RoboCup Dream

Many RoboCuppers share a dream: a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players that is capable of playing soccer games against human players by 2050. The demonstration of a human versus robot soccer game at RoboCup 2007 was an exciting display of the progress that has been in RoboCup community since 1997 in terms of the robot’s autonomy, sensing ability, and physical features. This game also uncovered several new issues. For example, do human soccer players play games against robots in the same way that they would if they were playing against human players? In this study, we investigate the features of RoboCup soccer leagues and examine whether these features are necessary and sufficient to realize the dream of RoboCuppers. We compare the current RoboCup soccer leagues to human soccer leagues and discuss metrics that indicate the similarity between robot soccer games and human soccer games. In other words, we discuss our progress toward realizing the dream. In addition, we propose amendments of laws for human and robot soccer that will deal with human-related issues and facilitate research toward achieving the dream.