Scientific and Technological Challenges in RoboCup

Since its inception in 1997, RoboCup has developed into a truly unique and long-standing research community advancing robotics and artificial intelligence through various challenges, benchmarks, and test fields. The main purposes of this article are to evaluate the research and development achievements so far and to identify new challenges and related new research issues. Unlike other robot competitions and research conferences, RoboCup eliminates the boundaries between pure research activities and the development of full system designs with hardware and software implementations at a site open to the public. It also creates specific scientific and technological research and development challenges to be addressed. In this article, we provide an overview of RoboCup, including its league structure and related research issues. We also review recent studies across several research categories to show how participants (called RoboCuppers) address the research and development challenges before, during, and after the annual competitions. Among the diversity of research issues, we highlight two unique aspects of the challenges: the platform design of the robots and the game evaluations. Both of these aspects contribute to solving the research and development challenges of RoboCup and verifying the results from a common perspective (i.e., a more objective view). Finally, we provide concluding remarks and discuss future research directions.

Does size matter?

PurposeThis paper aims to explore at what league size competitive balance reaches its best level through a longitudinal study and by using the English Premier League (EPL) as an example.Design/methodology/approachTo test the influence of league size on competitive balance in the EPL, the authors first calculated competitive balance scores for 22 seasons between 1995/96 and 2016/17 under the existing 20 team system. They then calculated a further ten normalised competitive balance scores for each EPL season by adjusting the league size to examine the league size threshold at which competitive balance in each season of the EPL was at its best level.FindingsThe analysis indicates that the current league structure of 20 teams compromises the overall level of competitive balance in the EPL in comparison with a league comprising between 10 and 19 teams. However, the authors cannot pinpoint the precise league size at which the EPL is most competitively balanced, as no significant differences were observed between the competitive balance indices for these league sizes.Originality/valueThe findings of this study have practical relevance for league organisers and the Union of European Football Associations given that they themselves have stated that competitive balance will be a big challenge for the European football industry in the coming years.

Measuring player development outputs in European football clubs (2005-2006 to 2015-2016)

Purpose The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) legislative intervention around “home-grown” player quotas came into effect for the 2006-2007 season, aiming to protect playing opportunities and the development of indigenous talent. Previous research has identified clear differences between clubs and club types regarding opportunities for academy players. This paper aims to examine the outputs from six European leagues (France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and England), identifying differences between national associations, club type, and on an individual club level. The paper investigates different league structure (in terms of allowing reserve teams in the professional leagues) and assesses UEFAs legislation in relation to programme theory (expected outcomes). Design/methodology/approach The study is based on playing data from 200 clubs and 3,329 indigenous players making their debut in one of the six leagues since 2006, and includes ten seasons of competition to 2015-2016. Findings The number of players produced and playing opportunities offered since 2006 are more prominent in the Spanish, The Netherlands, French and German leagues compared to Italy and England. For those clubs competing in all ten seasons, a similar pattern emerges with those four nations producing greater outputs. Four clubs significantly outperform others in terms of producing players reaching any top-six league first team, and for their own academy graduates. Additionally, the four leagues allowing reserve teams in their professional structure have a higher level of “output” for their academy players. Originality/value The paper discusses issues in the design of the legislation (not making nationality a factor and being unable to control other dominant variables) as key weaknesses to influencing change, and achieve the rationale cited by UEFA for its introduction.

Realignment in the NHL, MLB, NFL, and NBA

Sports leagues consist of conferences subdivided into divisions. Teams play a number of games within their divisions and fewer games against teams in different divisions and conferences. Usually, a league structure remains stable from one season to the next. However, structures change when growth or contraction occurs, and realignment of the four major professional sports leagues in North America has occurred more than 25 times since 1967. In this paper, we describe a method for realigning sports leagues that is flexible, adaptive, and that enables construction of schedules that minimize travel while satisfying other criteria. We do not build schedules; we develop league structures which support the subsequent construction of efficient schedules. Our initial focus is the NHL, which had a need for realignment following the recent move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, but our methods can be adapted to virtually any situation. We examine a variety of scenarios for the NHL, and apply our methods to the NBA, MLB, and NFL. We find the biggest improvements for MLB and the NFL, where adopting the best solutions would reduce league travel by about 20%.

Incentives and League Structure in Minor League Baseball

The purpose of this article is to analyze the effect of different ways of organizing sports leagues on team effort. Double A minor league baseball in the United States is organized either as geographical leagues or as split season leagues. The evidence presented in this article suggests that teams in geographical leagues reduce their effort for longer periods of time (up to twice as long) than their counterparts in split season leagues. However, more teams give up trying to catch the leader in split season leagues than in geographical leagues. In fact, up to one third of teams in the split season league give up whereas no teams give up in the geographical league. This information will be of use to owners, managers, and coaches of sports teams because they will be able to identify periods of time when extra incentives to win may be required.