Editorial: Humanoid Soccer Robots

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. RoboCup is an international research and education initiative with the goal of fostering artificial intelligence and robotics research by providing a standard problem. Currently, there exist a number of different RoboCup soccer leagues that focus on different aspects of this challenge. In the humanoid league, autonomous robots with a human-like body and human-like senses play soccer against each other. The long-term goal of RoboCup is to develop a team of humanoid soccer robots that wins against the FIFA world champion by the year 2050. The humanoid league is one of the most dynamically progressing leagues and the one closest to the 2050 goal. Several of the best autonomous humanoid robots in the world compete in this league.