Japan's Chiba Institute of Technology Won World RoboCup Soccer Two Years in a Row

The CIT Brains of Chiba Institute of Technology nailed the pennant in the World Robocup 2015 held in Hefei, China, in July. The team had won the title in Brazil last year.

The CIT Brains played in Kid-Size Division of the Humanoid League in 4-against-4 games played in 6x9-meter court. In the Humanoid League, autonomous robots with a human-like body and senses play soccer against each other. Research issues include, among others, dynamic walking, running, and kicking the ball in proper balance and team play. 15 teams from 13 countries contested in the division. The CIT team played 5 games in the league and 3 in the final tournament without loss,

The World Robo Cup started back in 1997. The color of the ball changed from orange to white-grey this year requiring more sensitive recognition; the pitch was switched from carpet to artificial lawn calling for skills to keep balance. "We thought we had all that figured out", says Professor Yasuo Hayashi, the team leader. The lawn, however, turned out to be fluffier than the one their robots had played and trained on back home, so that the robots kept falling over. The team had only two days to adjust to the "local conditions" and they somehow managed to cope with the hitches.

Ryu Yamamoto, a junior and student leader, confides, "We had to make last-minutes adjustments here and there and that was not easy. But, that was a good training ground for us to find solutions under time limit." Professor Hayashi looks back and say, "Students certainly learned lots of things hard way, challenging under stress, keeping calm."

Back in 2004 through 2007, Japan dominated robotic succor contests of the time when Team Osaka led by Professor H. Ishiguro won four consecutive years in the World RoboCup in the humanoid-class.