Defensive Positioning Strategies For A Goalkeeper In The AI World Cup
R.G. Oude Elferink (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Kushal Prakash – Mentor (Student TU Delft)
Rafael Bidarra – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Computer Graphics and Visualisation)
Stjepan Picek – Coach (TU Delft - Cyber Security)
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Abstract
The AI World Cup is a virtual competition in which teams of five players compete in a football match. The defensive strategies for the goalkeeper in this environment are yet to be researched, however. In previous editions of the competition the participating teams use a basic goalkeeper that can only dive but not position itself. This project provides research into the use of different positioning techniques to improve the performance of the goalkeeper.
In the project two different positioning techniques are presented and evaluated. In the first technique, the goalkeeper moves on an imaginary arc in front of the goal and in the second technique the goalkeeper moves on a straight line in front of the goal. Moreover, teamworking techniques between a defender and the goalkeeper are used to create a better coverage of the goal. The evaluations for the positioning techniques consist of 250 shots shot by an attacker from random distances and angles. The evaluations indicate that both goalkeepers have an improvement in performance over the basic goalkeeper, used by the other teams. The goalkeeper positioning on a line has the best performance, with an increase in performance of 27\% over the basic goalkeeper. These results demonstrate the value of positioning techniques for a goalkeeper in the AI World Cup.