In the history of artificial intelligence and robotics, the year 1997 will be remembered as a turning point. In May 1997, IBM Deep Blue defeated the human world champion in chess. Forty years of challenge in the AI community came to a successful conclusion. On July 4, 1997, NASA’s pathfinder mission made a successful landing and the first autonomous robotics system, Sojourner, was deployed on the surface of Mars. Together with these accomplishments, RoboCup made its first steps toward the development of robotic soccer players which can beat a human World Cup champion team.