Interview with Roberto Figueiredo: the RoboCup expertise

Roberto Figueiredo is a grasp’s scholar on the College of Aveiro. He’s a member of the Daring Hearts RoboCup workforce which competes within the Humanoid KidSize soccer league. He’s at present the native consultant for the Junior Rescue Simulation. We spoke to Roberto about his RoboCup journey, from the junior to the foremost leagues, and his expertise of RoboCup occasions.

When was your first RoboCup occasion and which competitors did you participate in?

I began in 2016 within the Junior leagues with my highschool and I took half within the rescue simulation competitors (though I initially joined the on-stage competitors). This primary occasion truly occurred in Portugal, and it was much like a workshop. We certified to go to the world cup in rescue simulation, in Leipzig, Germany, and we ended up in second place. That was very nice, and it was my first contact with RoboCup, and with robotics typically. I’d been working with electronics previously, however simulation gave me a little bit of an introduction to the extra theoretical facets of robotics, and to AI normally. Rescue simulation makes you consider methods to make the robots unbiased and never manually managed by people.

Roberto’s first RoboCup in 2016, Leipzig, pictured with the Singapore workforce celebrating after the finals.

Might you inform us in regards to the subsequent RoboCup occasions that you simply took half in?

In 2017 we certified to go to Nagoya, Japan, which was not simply an incredible RoboCup, however an incredible journey. That’s one other advantage of robotics, you get to fulfill lots of new individuals in new nations. We did fairly effectively on this competitors as effectively, I feel we reached fifth place.

After that we went to European RoboCup Junior in Italy. The next 12 months was my final RoboCup as a junior, which was in Sydney. That was additionally an fascinating occasion and I obtained to talk a bit extra with the majors and perceive how their groups labored. By this level, I had gained extra expertise, and I felt able to get entangled with a significant league RoboCup workforce.

There’s a massive hole between the junior and main leagues. Once I joined my workforce (the Daring Hearts), many of the workforce have been PhDs and I used to be only a second 12 months bachelor’s scholar so it was fairly onerous to choose up all of the information. Nevertheless, if you’re persistent sufficient and you have an interest in, and obsessed with, robotics you’ll get the hold of it and also you’ll be taught by trial and error.

EuroRoboCup 2022 in Portugal. Roberto (kneeling in picture) was a part of the organising committee.

When was your first competitors with the workforce within the main league?

My first competitors was truly final 12 months, in Thailand. We didn’t carry out as we want to, nonetheless, there may be rather more to RoboCup than simply the competitors – it’s now extra of a scientific and knowledge-sharing occasion, it’s distinctive. Simply this 12 months, in Bordeaux, we had an issue with our robots. Each time we disconnected the ethernet cable, the robotic simply stopped taking part in, and we couldn’t work out what was occurring. I requested one other workforce that was utilizing the identical software program – they’d discovered the issue earlier than and so they advised us tips on how to remedy it. I don’t suppose you’ll see that in different competitions. Each workforce has a joint goal which is making science progress, making friendships, and making different groups higher by sharing their information. That’s actually distinctive.

How did you be part of the Daring Hearts workforce?

I made a decision to do my grasp’s within the UK (on the College of Hertfordshire), to expertise a distinct nation and a distinct fashion of training. Once I joined, I knew there was a workforce so I used to be already trying ahead to becoming a member of. After a few years of labor, we lastly obtained to go to a contest as a workforce. It’s been an incredible time and an enormous studying expertise.

What’s your function on the workforce?

In our workforce, everybody does a little bit of every part. We nonetheless have lots of issues to unravel – on each the {hardware} and software program aspect. All of us at present are laptop scientists so it’s a bit extra of a wrestle to work on the {hardware} aspect. So, I do a little bit of every part, each AI and non-AI associated issues. For instance, I’ve completed some 3d modelling for the robots, and I’m at present engaged on the balancing downside. All of us work collectively on the issues which is wonderful since you get to see a little bit of every part and be taught from everybody. Robotics is a really multidisciplinary area. You get to find out about every kind of subjects: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, machine studying, coding normally.

The Daring Hearts’ qualification video for this 12 months’s RoboCup competitors

Might you inform us about this 12 months’s competitors (which came about in Bordeaux)?

This 12 months we have been much more ready than final 12 months, once we’d simply come again from COVID, and all of our skilled members had lately left the workforce, as a consequence of ending their PhDs and beginning work. Making a profitable robotic workforce is a big integration downside. There are such a lot of items that have to go collectively and work completely for the robots to operate, and if one fails it appears to be like like your system isn’t doing something. We obtained strolling working completely this 12 months, we had imaginative and prescient working effectively too, and we had a steady determination tree, and we have been capable of take heed to the controller (which is sort of a referee and passes on details about fouls, sport begin and stops and so forth.). Nevertheless, we had some bugs within the determination tree that made every part collapse and we spent lots of time making an attempt to debug it. This occurs to lots of groups. Nevertheless, you possibly can nonetheless admire the work and progress of what they’ve completed.

RoboCup 2023 in Bordeaux. Roberto (left) with Daring Hearts teammates.

What are the rapid plans for the workforce?

We are actually fascinated about becoming a member of the simulation competitors, which is a part of our league. It takes place within the winter season and we’re planning on becoming a member of to work on our software program. The transition between simulation and {hardware} is sort of onerous. You want a superb simulation base to have the ability to switch instantly the information to the robotic. We’re engaged on having an excellent simulation so we will switch, no less than extra simply, the information learnt in simulation to the robots.

RoboCup is shifting extra in direction of AI and studying, which we will see within the 3d simulation. The robots be taught lots of the movement by way of reinforcement studying, for instance. Within the bodily leagues it’s not as simple as we’ve to switch that to the actual world, the place there may be play within the joints, there’s backlash, there’s play within the 3d components – there are lots of variables that aren’t taken into consideration in simulations.

How has being a part of RoboCup impressed your research and analysis?

Each time I’m going to RoboCup I come out fascinated about what I’m going to do subsequent. I couldn’t be extra impressed. It’s a very intense area however I like it. It makes you need to work actually onerous and it makes you obsessed with science. I did my bachelor’s mission associated to RoboCup, I joined a grasp’s course on robotics, I preserve asking my Professors in the event that they need to begin a workforce again in Portugal. I’m going to do my grasp’s thesis on robotics, on humanoids. I feel humanoids are a really complicated and fascinating problem. There is no such thing as a one single resolution.

About Roberto

Roberto Figueiredo is a Portuguese, AI-focused laptop scientist with a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Hertfordshire. He at present pursuing a grasp’s in Robotics and Clever Methods from the College of Aveiro, and is obsessed with advancing his experience in robotics. He has lengthy been very captivated with robots and AI, being a participant in RoboCup since 2016 within the Rescue Simulation league. He has since turn into native consultant for the Rescue League in Portugal and joined a Main workforce, Daring Hearts, within the Child Dimension league, one of the difficult in RoboCup Humanoid Soccer.