We are very pleased to welcome you to the 16th RoboCup International Competition Symposium!

As one of its features, RoboCup aims to transfer research results and technological advances in Robotics and related areas from the laboratory to the real world. The annual RoboCup competitions play a particular role towards this purpose. An autonomous robot is typically a large-scale system that integrates a variety of techniques from different domains, and thus needs the extensive effort of a whole group. Meanwhile, different groups throughout the world have developed different robots based on different ideas, concepts and approaches. Therefore, it is crucial to have these endeavors tested and compared under the same conditions. RoboCup competitions have provided such tests and comparisons in a world-class scale annually. Each year the conditions are enhanced deliberatively by the community, to keep the tests challenging, fruitful, and approaching closer to real world conditions.

The RoboCup International Symposium has been an indispensible part of the RoboCup initiative, where researchers exchange and discuss their cutting edge ideas and results related to the initiative, especially those that are stimulated and tested by the competitions. Therefore, the symposium provides a unique forum for exploring and disseminating insights and other results of the worldwide efforts as a part of the RoboCup initiative.

For the 16th RoboCup International Symposium, we received 64 submissions. The submissions were reviewed carefully by the International Program Committee, which consisted of 54 members. Each paper was reviewed by three reviewers. Overall, we accepted 27 of those (42%), of which 12 (19%) were chosen for oral presentation. All accepted papers are being presented as posters during the symposium. The decision on the best paper award is being made by an Award Selection Committee, based on the results of the review process, and based on the presentation of the nominated papers at the symposium.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Program Committee members and reviewers for their valuable work, especially their constructive comments and suggestions about the submissions. We also thank all of the authors for their contributions. We are grateful to the Award Selection Committee members for their careful evaluation and decision of the best paper award. We give our special thanks to the local organizing committee for their effective and efficient arrangements and support to the symposium.

Xiaoping Chen
Peter Stone
Luis Enrique Sucar
Tijn Van der Zant
The Symposium Co-Chairs