The CMUnited-98 champion small-robot team

Robotic soccer presents a large spectrum of challenging research opportunit ies. In this article, we present the main research and technical contributi ons of our champion CMUnited-98 small-robot team. The team is a multiagent robotic system with global perception, and distributed cognition and action . We introduce our new robot motion algorithm that reactively generates mot ion control to account for the target point, the desired robot orientation and obstacle avoidance. Our robots exhibit successful collision-free motion in the highly dynamic robotic soccer environment. At the strategic and dec ision-making level, we present the role-based behaviors of the CMUnited-98 robotic agents. Team collaboration is remarkably achieved through a new alg orithm that allows for team agents to anticipate possible collaboration opp ortunities. Robots position themselves strategically in open positions that increase passing opportunities. The article terminates with a summary of t he results of the RoboCup-98 games in which the CMUnited-98 small-robot tea m scored a total of 25 goals and suffered 6 goals in the five games that it played.