Robocup 2011

[PedroR]

Hi all

Robocup 2011 is ending today and you can still watch some LIVE coverage here:

http://www.robocup2011.org/en/content.asp?PID={2030883A-0B9A-4063-A3B4-C087A2AB1385}

Robocup 2011 was comprised of several categories with a few of them, not so famous but still quite interesting:

- Robocup Soccer - http://www.robocup2011.org/en/content.asp?PID={05E5118F-1E8F-474D-91DE-DBE2DD0DED2D}

- Robocup Rescue - http://www.robocup2011.org/en/content.asp?PID={ABB75489-52A7-49A2-91A2-11E4FB219CA7}

- Robocup@Home - http://www.robocup2011.org/en/content.asp?PID={2C504DC1-7218-4BA3-829B-EF3E5B6620A8}

- Robocup Junior - http://www.robocup2011.org/en/content.asp?PID={66CED1A3-257A-4084-8045-ACA63A744668}

As you may know the HaViMo module for Bioloid was devlopped for a Robocup competition and the Bioloid Team with HaViMo won 3rd place in autonomous soccer competition in the first year they participated.
HaViMo was later made available for general sue and is now compatible with Roboplus (HaViMo 2) and very accessible to the end user.

Here is one of the Videos from the Autonomous Soccer competition:

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Nao was adopted as "standard platform" this year as well. Robotis was a main sponsor and was demonstrating their new DARwIn-OPat the event.

A new Robotics company - Dasarobot - formed by former engineers of Megarobotics and Hitec - was also present at the event as part of their process to release a new generation of hobby servos and robot kits.

Regards
Pedro.

[PedroR]

Hi all

Here is some footage of the finals of Robocup 2011:

Adult Size final:

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The winner was Charli from Virginia Tech

Small Size League FInal:

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The winner was Taiwanese team Skuba.

Teen size finals:

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The winner was again, a German team Nimbro (by 10-0) vs a Taiwanese team.

Standard Platform Finals:

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The standard Platform is essentially a competition with stock Nao Robots.
The final match was between two German teams. Team B-Human won.


We'll try to keep posting more information, in particular about the robots and teams that won.

Regards
Pedro

[billyzelsnack]

I'm hoping they get rid of the standard humanoid league. Especially now that there is more than one option to just buy your robot team instead of building.

[JavaRN]

I don't fully agree with you Bill. The SPL is a league in which all platforms (hardware) are the same so the emphasis is on the programming. In the open humanoid league the challenge is more difficult as it's not only the programming that is important but also the robot itself.

[billyzelsnack]

Do you want the standard league teams protected from the regular teams or the other way around?

My point was that if someone wants to buy their team they can. Next year we'll probably see half of the regular robocup league as Darwins. Those teams that buy their robots can concentrate on just the programming. While that could be considered an advantage it could also be a disadvantage because the team is locked into a common hardware design.

[Gort]

Not sure if I understand? Why is having teams just concentrate on programming a bad idea?

[billyzelsnack]

It's not. It's just redundant now that there are multiple options available for just buying your robots.

[PedroR]

Hi all

I forgot the post the most important video of the finals: the Kidsize league finals where Robotis DARwIn-OP was the absolute winner!

The DARwIn-OP was the Robocup 2011 winner of the kidsize league and you can watch the video bellow:

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Robotis products were also present in another winning robot: CHARLIE, the Human size robot uses Dynamixel servos.

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(fyi a video of this Robot has already been posted above but I am re posting to put it in context)

The full story about Robotis excellent performance in Robocup 2011 can be found on this post http://robosavvy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=31733#31733

Regards
Pedro

[tempusmaster]

It's not. It's just redundant now that there are multiple options available for just buying your robots.

The standard platform category was designed to eliminate hardware differences while focusing on the software aspects. The overall concept is to advance the sport and the technology. That requires active development across all aspects of robot soccer.

If you just have the competitions open to all configurations than one platform might dominate because of a particular advantage, like the hardware or sensors. In that situation then development on other aspects, like the software, would take a back seat and its evolution would slow.

It's not just about 'winning' or who has the strongest, fastest, or most agile robots. It's also about moving the total initiative forward as rapidly as possible. To do that there has to be a balanced emphasis on all aspects of robotics design.

The question of whether or not NAO is the best platform for the standard platform category is certainly debatable. That being said, the category plays a very useful role in the RoboCup initiative and needs to continue.

[billyzelsnack]

I would argue that one team dominating is exactly how you gain progress as quickly as possible. That team sets the bar for other teams to beat. In fact we have seen this with the domination from the German teams.

Two leagues just sets up two bars, one lower than the other.

[Gort]

What I want to see is matches between the NAO and the DARwIn-OP!

I will be curious to see how many teams use the DARwIn-OP next year? I am betting that it will be a very high percentage!

[SJ]

I hope the darwin robot to be a breakthrough for kidsize league, where most teams spends most of the time building the robots, and fail to make them reliable enough. Using the battle-proven darwin as their baseline robot will help them a lot and encourage more teams to compete.

And personally I think nao is a not very good platform, which is not due to its performance but due to its maintainability. They get damaged easily due to their heavy weight and plastic gears, and there are no way to fix them yourself. I think the ideal SPL platform may be the darwin with ultrasound sensors that are actually working.

[Gort]

Thanks for the info, SJ