The Federation of International Robot-Soccer Association (FIRA) announced Monday that it would co-host this year's national championships with Pohang Iron and Steel Corp. (POSCO), to be held for for four days from Jan. 16 at the National Science Museum, Daeduk Venture Valley.
The tournament, called the 2002 FIRA-POSCO Robot-Soccer championships, will feature 27 Korean stalwarts, including 19 undergraduate groups and eight high school groups, competing in the major show, MiroSot. These powerhouses were among 72 finalists in the preliminary matches held in the four provinces of Gyeonggi, Gyeongsang, Jeju and Chungcheong last September and October.
In the MiroSot event, six undergraduate groups will compete against each other in the Korean League, which will feature five robots per team, while 13 groups will play in the Rookie League, featuring three robots per team.
In a pilot event called SimuroSot, 20 undergraduate groups will showcase the abilities of humanoid robot soccer players while two groups are to participate in HuroSot, a robot-less event played with computers.
The national championships will likely provide a good opportunity for fans to rate the Korean robot-soccer teams ahead of the 2002 FIRA Robot World Cup.
FIFA is planning to appoint the Robot World Cup as an official cultural event in the field of science and technology and to have the games played in the six World Cup host cities and at COEX in Seoul in celebration of the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals.
Korea has been one of the top countries in the world in robot-soccer and competitors from as many as 27 countries are expected to participate in the Robot World Cup this year.
(Shim Jae-yul, jysim@chosun.com)
