In recent years, significant progress has been made in the design and control of autonomous humanoid robots. One area, where this progress is particularly visible, is humanoid robot soccer.

FIRA (Federation of International Robosoccer Association) and the RoboCup Federation organize annual international competitions for soccer robots that include leagues for humanoid robots. These competitions foster AI and intelligent robotics research by providing a standard problem where a wide range of technologies can be integrated and benchmarked. The ultimate goal of the RoboCup initiative is to develop a team of soccer-playing humanoid robots that shall be able to beat the champion of the most recent World Cup under FIFA official rules by the mid-21st century.

Although current humanoid soccer robots are far from playing at human level, dramatic improvements in walking ability, perception of the game situation, team play, and robustness can be observed. Also, a humanoid robot has been chosen as the new standard platform for RoboCup and the simulation games use now models of complex humanoid soccer robots.

This special issue will cover humanoid soccer robots from the intelligent autonomous systems perspective. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

•  Humanoid soccer robot construction
•  Algorithms for control of complex full-body motion
•  Visual perception of the game situation
•  Perceptual and motor learning
•  Action planning
•  Cooperation and team play
•  Software architectures for humanoid soccer robots
•  Humanoid soccer robot platforms
•  Simulation of complex humanoid soccer robots

All submissions will be peer reviewed by three referees. 

Interested authors should follow the Guide for Authors available at http://ees.elsevier.com/robot/.

Please send the paper in PDF format by email to all three guest editors.

The call is closed. The special issue has been published.

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