Roboludens - Open European RoboCup Championship, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Yes, we are crazy scientists ... (from the opening speech)

Eindhoven, Netherlands, hosted an important robotic event from April 5th to April 9th - Roboludens. The main content of the robotic day is the RoboCup European Open Championship. Sixty teams from many countries all across Europe (Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, ...) compete in all robosoccer leagues.

This article will first briefly cover all the RoboCup leagues (you can skip it, if you know them) and then it will continue with the description of the Roboludens event.

RoboCup leagues The motto of the RoboCup is: By the year 2050, develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world soccer champion team. Many research teams from universities and companies all around the world compete every year in several championships up to the world championship. Check the RoboCup home site for more detailed description than the one provided here.
FIRA In the FIRA Mirosot league the robots with not more the 5 x 5 cm dimensions are remotely controlled from a single computer. The camera above the field is used to observe color marks on top off all robots, which the computer uses to localize all the robots. The FIRA is an association very similar to the RobCup and organizes very similar leagues to the leagues organized by RoboCup.
Small-size league The small size league is very similar to the FIRA league, only the robots are slightly bigger - they must fit inside a 18cm diameter cylinder.
Middle-size league The middle-size league is the oldest robosoccer league of all. The robots, unlike in the previous leagues, have to be fully autonomous. This means, that they must have their own vision and/or other sensors and an on-board computer that does the thinking and decisioning part of the job. The video of the middle-size league (10.1MB, mov) The team may consist from up to seven robots. The team is limited only by the total space the robots take. However, this year all teams were using three players plus the goal-keeper. Or at least all teams were trying to do so.
Junior/LEGO league The robot soccer is not only a domain of advanced research institutions and technical universities. Also a lot of children take part. In the Junior league two LEGO Mind-Storms (in the LEGO league) and homebrew (Junior league) robots compete one against another using a ball with an infra-red light inside. The video of the junior league (4.2MB, mov)
AIBO league The AIBO league is sponsored by SONY, the company that used to sell the AIBO robo-dog (they will stop the production soon). Many universities, especially the non-technical ones, prefer this league, because it allows them not to struggle with a non-reliable hardware. They can focus on developing a smart software instead. The video of an AIBO match (10.7MB, mov)
Simulation 2D/3D league Even better for the pure researchers si no hardware at all. The Simulation league offers a complicated simulated environment giving the problems very similar to these in the real world leagues. The 2D environment is slowly abandoned in favor of the newer 3D version.
Humanoid league Large expectation is put on the humanoid league. At the moment humanoid robots are glad, if they manage to walk and not to fall within few seconds. For this reason the current humanoid league is not a full fotball match according to FIFA rules, but only the penalty kicks. Two robots from two teams switch they roles to kick and catch the penalty kick. The kicking robot must locate the ball within sixty seconds from the beginning of the match and score the goal. At the moment this is considered a very difficult task. The video of the humanoid league (11.7MB, mov) Another video - an unsuccessfull attempt (35MB, mov)
Rescue league The only RoboCup competition, which is totally unrelated to the robotic soccer. In the Rescue league the remotely controlled robot explores the disaster area for victims. The human operator is placed behind the wall and "sees" only through the the robot's sensors, like sonars, radars, and on-board cameras. The goal is to find as many victims in as short time as possible. The video of the rescue league (12.4MB, mov)

Roboludens

Friday

Do you know, why it is a bad idea to play robosoccer in Netherlands? Because looking for the orange ball in the country, where everyone wears a jacket or a t-shirt in the national color - orange - is a heroic task ;-)

Although all teams are already accommodated and have tested the playgrounds in the days before, Roboludens is officially started on Friday morning. Even though the middle-size league is scheduled since 9:00, it does not start sooner than 9:30. And the delay is not getting better later on. Very soon it became obvious, that the robotic syndrome known to the Eurobot competition participants holds also for the robosoccer - the robots just do not move. And if they do, they should better not.

"Does your goal-keeper ever move?" (me)
"No, no. We have a problem." (MINH team member)

In the first match the MINH team was trying the best to repair the failing robots at least almost as fast, as they were leaving the playground in panic. This left them competing most of the time with a single robot (not counting the goalie, which was switched off in the catching area).

However, in few hours the miracle occurs and robots all among different teams start to move and some of them even to play football. The MINH team made it successfully to three active players plus a goalie catching opponents shots. I liked the match between the CoPS Stuttgart team and the Phillips team. Even though the robots did not cooperate very much with the teammates, the Stuttgart team managed to cover the space and handle the ball almost perfectly.

The biggest attention is on the AIBO robots on Friday. This is caused mainly by the fact, that they "just work". The tax paid is the AIBO's inborn incapability to kick the ball, leaving them with several strange strategies like head kicking and pushing the whole body on the ball.

The reporters and journalists were mostly attracted by the Humanoid league. Even though there was actualy only one team fully capable to kick the ball and to catch it as a goalie - NimBro. Thus this single team had to play several fake matches against itself (they have one robot as a kicker - Jupp - and one as a goalie - Sepp) for the reporters to be satisfied. Next time you see a picture like the one on the right, be extremely suspicious. If Sepp ever tries to get the ball by such a jump, it will probably fall apart. And it took several minutes to arrange Jupp into the position with the leg this high and ready for the killing shot (do you also consider it logical to be ready to kick AFTER THE BALL IS ALREADY AWAY?).

The simulation league was postponed because of the software problems:

"We asked to have ten Linux computers a week in advance. We got ten computers with Microsoft Windows two days in advance."

The very nice fact about the Roboludens on Friday is the large number of children and young people. According to one of the organizers the schools were invited for excursions. Not more then four houndred children were expected, but four thousand applied.

Saturday

Do you know, what do the robots in Junior league which are looking for the infra-red ball like most? The automatic calibration of spectators' cameras using infra-red light.

All the teams had the whole night to fix the problems. Let's see, how successfull they were ...

Middle-size league

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• The MINH team is playing with a single active player and the goalie is not moving. Is this called progress?
• The Stuttgart team robots probably did not sleep well. At least I would guess so from the lost field coverage ability and the lost ball handling skill.

Junior league

The only competition running on time. Actually, not. They are ahead. They managed to finish on Saturday, even though the finals were scheduled for Sunday.

The Italian team was so successfull, that they hit the rule about a single prize for a single team. They had to pass it to the next successfull participant. Twice (different age categories). Amazing.

Humanoid league

Having finished all matches the day before, the playground was left for exhibitions of the NimBro team from the Germany, who were second on the last world championship in Osaka, Japan. The show of two their humanoid robots playing one-to-one match was probably the most awesome experience of the Roboludens.

• The first amazing Nimbro video (5.3MB, mov)
• The second amazing Nimbro video (6.6MB, mov)

Simulation leagues

Hurray, the system is up and running. Listening to the team members of AT Humboldt, FC Portugal and the past member of UvA Trilearn, all of them world class in their best year, it seems, that the 2D league is being supressed by the RoboCup organization in favor of the 3D league. If you want to join the Simulation soccer league, go for 3D. And it was also obvious, that the new 3D teams still do not have the profficiency of their 2D predecessors. It is quite a good chance to begin now.

The less I knew about the simulated rescue league, the more and better I got surprised. The simulator simulates the whole city, where a disaster happend. To solve it, there are fire-brigades preventing the fire from spreading, there are ambulances transporting the wounded and they all need to cope with buildings collapsing to the street and thus making it impossible to pass through. The goal of the participant's software is to control the firemen, ambulance and police in order to minimize the damage of the city.

They seem to have decided to leave this block of houses to burn down, but they have a full control of the neighborhood and prevent the fire from spreading. An interesting strategy. (a participant)

The next team tried to extinguish the fire (the same simlation conditions) ... and failed miserably.