RoboCupJunior (RCJ) is a project-oriented educational competition for young students 14 to 19 years old. It is designed to introduce RoboCup to secondary school children. The focus of RCJ is on education. The tournament offers to the participants the chance to take part in international exchange programs and to share the experience of meeting peers from abroad.
RoboCupJunior offers several challenges, each emphasizing both cooperative and competitive aspects. For young students, RoboCupJunior provides an exciting introduction to the field of robotics, a new way to develop technical abilities through hands-on experience with electronics, hardware and software, and a highly motivating opportunity to learn about teamwork while sharing technology with friends. In contrast to the one-child-one-computer scenario typically seen today, RoboCupJunior provides a unique opportunity for participants with a variety of interests and strengths to work together as a team to achieve a common goal.
More information:
RoboCupJunior website
LOC chair: Martin Klomp ✉
LOC co-chair: Niels de Winter
One or more robots come together with humans, dressed in costume and moving in creative, interactive and collaborative ways.
RoboCupJunior OnStage invites teams to design, build and program creative and autonomous physical robots. The objective is to create either a live or streamed, robotic performance that uses a wide variety of technology to engage an audience. This includes a range of possible performances, such as dance, storytelling, theatre, or art installations. The performance may involve music, but this is optional. The league is intended to be open-ended. Teams are encouraged to be creative, innovative, and entertaining, in both the design of the robots and in the design of the overall performance.
More information:
On stage website
LOC: Cilia Claij/Emy Ganzenboom ✉
Robots identify victims within re-created disaster scenarios, varying in complexity from line-following on a flat surface to negotiating paths through obstacles on uneven terrain.
Rescue line
The field shows the route (black line on white tiles) to the victims, which the autonomous robots should follow. The route includes crossings, ramps and other obstacles. The victims then must be saved at the end of the route.
Rescue maze
In this competition, the robot should explore a maze, look for victims and save them by giving a rescue kit.
Rescue simulation
The robots in this competition don't move in real life, but on a computer in a simulation. The robots have the same task as in Rescue Maze, with some added obstacles.
More information:
Autonomous robots compete against each other
This is the league where teams have to compete against each other with their soccer robots. The robots compete 2:2 on a ~1.8mx2.4m field.
Soccer Lightweight
The robots participating in this competition must be light, small and will play with an IR ball. This is easier to detect, setting the focus on mechanical and hardware design.
Soccer Open
This competition allows for bigger robots, but the soccer ball is an orange golf ball. This requires more work on detecting it (computer vision), shifting the focus from mechanical to software.
More information:
Junior Soccer website
LOC: Isa El Doori ✉
