The design of an intelligent soccer-playing robot

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to design intelligent robots operating in such dynamic environments like the RoboCup Middle-Size League (MSL). In the RoboCup MSL, two teams of five autonomous robots play on an 18- × 12-m field. Equipped with sensors and on-board computers, each robot should be able to perceive the environment, make decision and control itself to play the soccer game autonomously. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the design of our soccer robots, participating in RoboCup MSL. The mechanical platform, electrical architecture and software framework are discussed separately. The mechanical platform is designed modularly, so easy maintainability is achieved; the electronic architecture is built on industrial standards using PC-based control technique, which results in high robustness and reliability during the intensive and fierce MSL games; the software is developed upon the open-source Robot Operating System (ROS); thus, the advantages of ROS such as modularity, portability and expansibility are inherited. Findings – Based on this paper and the open-source hardware and software, the MSL robots can be re-developed easily to participate in the RoboCup MSL. The robots can also be used in other research and education fields, especially for multi-robot systems and distributed artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the main designing ideas proposed in the paper, i.e. using a modular mechanical structure, an industrial electronic system and ROS-based software, provide a common solution for designing general intelligent robots. Originality/value – The methodology of the intelligent robot design for highly competitive and dynamic RoboCup MSL environments is proposed.