Today we are at the second day of competition. In the morning we played with Vienna Cubes, but unfortunately they had serious problems with their vision system.
We tried to resolve this problem together, but finally we didn't find a solution. To try and work around this, we changed the schedule of the match to a later time. However, the problems were so severe that they had to give up on not only our game, but also all remaining games in the competition.
From the previous competition we knew that this is a really good team. They moved to an entirely new vision system which worked fine in their lab, but stopped working during competition. I'm sure they'll fix these issues by the next time we meet on the green carpet.
The next match was planned for 13:30 and this time we had the chance to play with probably the best team during the competition - 5dpo. Our robots tried to play their best, but we are still a young team. Our opponents are in the league since 1998, so naturally this is a team with lots of experience. During first half we had some problems with our robots, mainly with the goalkeeper which was too far from goal area. We had noticed problems quickly and then we took timeout and after 2 minutes problems were resolved. Later we had to play with only 4 robots, because one of our robots had bad connection between motor connectors. We had resolved this problem just during the half match. We were happy that during this day our robots started to work like a team. We had good defence but we still have to work over attack. The final result of this match was 7:0 for 5dpo.
The last match was with B-smart team. It was really exciting game. Both teams played well and also both teams had problems. We had problem with ball detection, sometimes our system thought that opponent robot is a ball. For this reason our robots hit ball first several times when it supposed to be opponents' free kick and got yellow card. During first half we scored and later our defence didn't allow opponents to get any goal. We are so proud of our robots and wait for better future. They learn play from day to day :) In the future we will be the best. Carnegie Mellon should be scared of us :)
Teams are friendly for each other so each day of competition is big chance to develop ourselves.
Botnia Vs. 5dpo 13:30-14:30
- by Ye Liu
Today we start our game by calibrating our vision system 15 mins ahead. Out opponent, 5dpo, from Portugal, is a very strong team whom won second place in last year’s world Robocop championship. Before the game, we all a little bit nervous but as well looking forward to see the match.
Two minutes after the game start, 5dpo made a goal by chip kicking the ball first then corner shoot. Ten minutes after the game started, one of our attacker-robots appears some problems with left wheel; we requested time out and tried to fix the problem throughout the game and half time. At that moment, nervous and worries throughout the whole atmosphere. Yang Liu and Lars were trying their best to fix the attacker-robot, the reason of the problem it that the connection for the kicker is getting loses every time when other robots hit him. During many of our attacking, 5dpo used chip kick to keep the away from the gate as soon as possible. But with only one attacker, it seems to defense is smarter for us. That is why in the second half match, defending is our main strategy for the rest of the game.
In the end, we still lost the game with the score 0: 7. 5dpo it is a very amazing team, their robot it is moving very fast compare with others, and their communication it is also very precise. After we see all their performance during the match, we are very surprised to find out that their design is it based on very simple idea and low cost devices. Additionally, I guess all our team members are motivated and inspired by other teams’ design during this event. As a student I am, I felt much more interested in our robot project after we realized there are so many way to make it work, it is like I am explore the world of technology.
Other leagues at RoboCup German Open 2007
- by Milosz Mazurkiewicz
RoboCup Rescue
There are two different types of robots in this league. The first type doesn’t have to pass through difficult obstacles. Its task is to find as many victims as possible in 15 minutes. It works autonomously scanning the environment with different sensors (CO2 detector, thermal detector, sound detector, distance meter). In the same time the robot creates a map of environment for itself. The other type of robot also uses many sensors but it can be remotely controlled by the operator. And the environment they move in is very demanding – 60 degree climbing, stairs, irregular ground. Therefore in this competition mechanic part is the most important. The teams usually program under Windows platform. Surprisingly most of them don’t have any sponsors. Their annual budgets are approximately 25 thousand Euros.
RoboCup Junior
There are three different types of competitions. The first one is to build a rescue robot (it can be made of Lego) based on some microcontrollers and sensors (for distance, colour). Kids program the microcontrollers that the robots follow the black line, avoid obstacles and inform about noticed drawings of victims on their way.
The other competition is to build robots playing football on a table tennis size field. The teams of two robots play using infra-red transmitting ball. There is also dance competition where robots are usually dancing with their designers to preprogrammed choreography. They also can interact with them.
RoboCup@Home
RoboCup@Home focuses on designing autonomous robots which would assist people in their every day life at home. There are several tests – the robots take voice commands to move to different places in the house avoiding obstacles, they should be able to search for some objects, bring the object pointed by the person. Also museums and supermarkets are interested in development of those robots.
RoboCup Soccer
Humanoid League
The teams are building humanoid robots which play a match 2 on 2. There are also separate tasks for robots – test for dribbling and passing. The robots usually have two 180 degree cameras to see the field around the robot and one pointing just in front of the robot to see the position of the ball. The robots are expensive – one costs about 17 thousand Euros. The program controlling the robot usually works on a palmtop. There’s usually Embedded Windows XP installed and the teams easily get sponsorship. Students make their thesis work implementing behavior of the robots.
4-Legged League
The teams are using robots made by Sony - AIBO dogs. Sony provides also operating system for it. Teams program robots (usually on Windows using C++ and Python). Totally it’s usually more than 60,000 lines of code. Then it’s compiled for AIBO’s system. The game doesn’t look interesting – the robots move slowly and usually they all go to the ball in the same time. But because the robots look like little puppies – the teams always have lots of spectators. It looks funny and easy, but it isn’t. The program has about 500 thousand lines of code. The intelligence and processing is inside each robot. Each robot has a camera build inside its head. The robots use wireless communication for self-localization, planning and multi-agent coordination.
Middle-size League
The teams play on big field using normal soccer ball. All sensors are on-board. Each robot has 360 degree vision of the field. The robots use wireless communication for self-localization, planning and multi-agent coordination. The robots have laptops inside. Building this kind of robots is quite expensive, but teams usually have sponsors. The game attracts a lot of spectators.
Simulation League
This is computer simulation of soccer game with 22 players on the field. There is 2D and 3D competition. During German Open 2007 there were only 2D teams. All teams were working on the same hardware. The platform was Linux. The choice of software depends from the team. Usually it is C++ or Java. In C++ the code exceeds 90,000 lines, including libraries it’s 250,000.