Science and technology of robotics and artificial intelligence as one of the pioneers of the future of humanity, has always been of interest to University societies and scientists. Iranian FIRA national region and Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran Iran, with the purpose of progressing to achieve this important goal will hold the 7th International Amirkabir Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Competition (Iranian FIRAworldCup Open 2018) with the cooperation of The International Federation of Robotics (FIRA)  on 2-5 March 2018.

In 1996, the Federation of International Robot Soccer Association (FIRA) organized the first robot soccer and other sports competition. The main goal of FIRA is to promote cutting edge research into robotics, machine learning, computer vision, and artificial intelligence by using robot sports as benchmark problems. A second goal is to introduce students to state of the art technologies and methodologies in the areas mentioned above and to prepare them for their future careers.

This year, we are pleased to announce the opening of the first FIRA Frontier Camp. The concept of the camp was developed based on feedback from former participants and teachers. It is similar to the International Humanoid Soccer Robot Summer School - a similar event for researchers and graduate students interested in humanoid robotics - that was organized by Prof. Jacky Baltes and Prof. Kuo-Yang Tu.

I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I was elected by the FIRA executive committee on 16th Dec. 2016 as new FIRA President. The FIRA community has always impressed me with its many highly dedicated individuals that used robot competitions to bring out the best in themselves, aware of the seriousness of their research, willing to share with and learn from each other, and acted fairly and sportsman-like.