RoboCup is a soccer competition for robots: big, small and virtual. The Cyberoos are a team of virtual software agents who play their games on a large computer monitor cheered on by their "coach", Mikhail Prokopenko of CSIRO.

While an international soccer competition for artificially intelligent (AI) robots sounds like a lot of fun - and it is - there is a much more serious side to it all. Scientists like Mr Prokopenko are working on computer systems for coordinating complex logistic problems like large scale emergencies.

Mr Prokopenko says that in disasters, like the current bushfires in the USA, there is a need to monitor and coordinate the actions of a large number of agencies and individuals in a complex, changing environment.

"International AI researchers were looking for a common environment in which we could develop our skills through competition - and we chose soccer. Many of the features of soccer are highly relevant to handling emergencies: well defined rules, a changing playing environment and a need for players to work together with a common strategy while being flexible enough to adapt to unexpected events," he says.

AI researchers are developing ways to make computers reason about strategies, learn from past experience and develop courses of action for particular situations, even when there are many unknowns.

In RoboCup, as in real life, players have only localised and imprecise information about the state of the field, and a short time to respond. They must make their own decisions while acting in collaboration with their team.

Mr Prokopenko says that, while his players are very good individually, there are still major challenges in developing their teamwork skills.

"As these challenges are overcome, we'll be tackling more realistic disaster recovery and rescue problems," he says.

This aspect is being developed through a recent offshoot of RoboCup, "RoboCup Rescue", where computers and robots plan and execute rescue operations for simulated large scale disasters such as bushfires or earthquakes.

This is only the third outing for the Cyberoos at the international level. Over 40 teams contested the simulation league in Melbourne and the Cyberoos were one of the 16 finalists. The finals were a close fought tussle with the Cyberoos winning through the first round only to be defeated 2-0 by Sharif Arvand of Iran in the second.

RoboCup is an annual event and coach and team are looking forward to even greater success in Seattle in 2001.