Founded in 2000, RoboCup Junior is a robotics initiative that sponsors both regional and international events that use team-based robotics competitions to educate children about technology and teach them how to cooperate with their peers. RoboCup Junior also offers an international exchange program, providing students with the opportunity to experience life abroad.
RoboCup Junior is one of the Robotics Competitions of the international RoboCup games that use robot competitions as a way to promote science and technology. Other leagues feature robot soccer and robot rescue competitions.
RoboCup Junior stresses education over competition. The goal is to provide a hands-on experience that gives children an exciting introduction to the world of robotics.
These junior leagues are designed for primary and secondary school students, and also undergraduate students who do not have the resources to enter the more advanced RoboCup leagues. There are 3 different competitions in RoboCup Junior: Soccer, Rescue, and Dance.
The soccer challenge consists of 2 teams of 2 players each controlling a soccer match between squads of autonomous robots tracking a light-emitting ball in an enclosed field.
The rescue challenge involves a recreation of disaster scenarios; robots are tasked with identifying and saving mock victims. This competition can be as easy as getting your robot to follow a line on a flat surface, or it may be as difficult as navigating around obstacles on uneven terrain.
In this challenge, the young competitors program costumed robots to dance to the rhythm of music.