Integrating auditory and visual perception for robotic soccer players

Abstract

We present a method of integrating auditory and visual perception for RoboCup mobile robots. When humanoid robots are fielded for soccer game, they need to quickly react to the environment using all possible sensory inputs. While current robots heavily depends on visual inputs, auditory inputs actually play significant role in detecting events where visual inputs are not available, such as on the side and behind the face direction. Sound of other players kicking the ball, and shouting of team-mates are critical cues for sophisticated teamwork play, such as the offside trap. This paper presents an integration of auditory and visual perception for identifying sound sources and separating sounds at high accuracy using both auditory and visual inputs.