RoboCup Junior Australia
RoboCup started in Australia in 2000 - for a historic video from this event click here. Events have been held each year since that date.
Australia deviates from the World RoboCup rules in quite a few areas.
One notable area is RoboCup Junior Rescue, where the somewhat cumbersome World Rescue Arena (click here, building plans click here or here) has been replaced in Australia by a flat flexible plastic Rescue Mat (click here). The main advantage of the Australian mat is that it can be rolled up and stored in a corner when the arena is not in use. Also, in competition, this mat can be separated into segments, and the segments re-arranged to vary the form, length and difficulty of the course. This mat replaced another Australia-only Rescue mat that can be seen tackled by the National 2006 winner here (Tasmanians were not impressed - we were left off the map yet again!)
Dance is another area where there is some variation. The Rules may be compared by consulting the Australian Dance rules by clicking here, and the 2010 International Dance Rules by clicking here.
Australia has also introduced the new GEN II Robot Soccer arena (click here) to supplement and eventually replace the previously used Robot Soccer arena. The 2010 Rules for the International version of Robot Junior Soccer can be seen by clicking here. Some images of soccer arenas, plus 2009 discussion of the future direction of International Robot Soccer, can be accessed by clicking here.
The official Australian RoboCup Junior web site can be consulted by clicking here.
www.DrGraeme.net -RoboCup Junior Australia information & links.