#RoboCup2024 – day by day digest: 20 July

The Normal Platform Soccer League in motion.

That is the second of our day by day digests from RoboCup2024 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Should you missed the primary digest, which provides some background to RoboCup, yow will discover it right here.

Competitions continued throughout all of the leagues right now, with individuals vying for a spot in Sunday’s finals.

The RoboCup@Work league focusses on robots in work-related eventualities, using concepts and ideas from different RoboCup competitions to deal with open analysis challenges in industrial and repair robotics.

I arrived on the enviornment in time to catch the superior navigation take a look at. Robots must autonomously navigate, choosing up and inserting objects at totally different work stations. On this superior take a look at, warning tape is added to the world ground, which the robots ought to keep away from travelling over. There may be additionally a posh inserting factor the place groups must put an object that they’ve collected right into a slot – get the orientation or placement of the item barely unsuitable and the it received’t fall into the slot.

The RoboCup@Work enviornment simply earlier than competitors begin.

Eight groups are collaborating within the league this yr. Govt Committee member Asad Norouzi mentioned that there are plans to introduce a sub-league which would offer an entry level for brand new groups or juniors to get into the league correct.

I caught up with Harrison Burns, Mitchell Torok and Jasper Arnold from Group MiRobot. They’re based mostly on the College of New South Wales and are attending RoboCup for the primary time.

Group MiRobot from UNSW.

The group really solely began six months in the past, so closing preparations have been a bit aggravating. Nonetheless, the expertise has been nice enjoyable, and the competitors has gone properly thus far. Like most groups, they’ve needed to make many refinements because the competitors has progressed, resulting in some late nights.

One notable function of the group’s robotic is the bespoke, in-house-designed greedy mechanism on the tip of the arm. The group notice that “it has good versatile jaws, so when it grabs spherical objects it really pulls the item straight into it. As a result of it makes use of a linear movement, in comparison with plenty of different rotating jaws, it has quite a bit higher reliability for choosing up objects”.

Right here is a few footage from the duty, that includes Group bi-t-bots and Group Singapore.

Group b-it-bots tackle the RoboCup@Work superior navigation take a look at, choosing up a drill bit #RoboCup2024 pic.twitter.com/QfijZpxaOK

— AIhub (@aihuborg) July 20, 2024

Group Singapore inserting an object within the RoboCup@Work superior navigation take a look at pic.twitter.com/SvgLBOaVo7

— AIhub (@aihuborg) July 20, 2024

Within the Center Dimension Soccer league (MSL), groups of 5 totally autonomous robots play with a daily dimension FIFA ball. Groups are free to design their very own {hardware} however all sensors must be on-board and there’s a most dimension and weight restrict of 40kg for the robots. The analysis focus is on mechatronics design, management and multi-agent cooperation at plan and notion ranges. 9 groups are competing this yr.

Motion from the Center Dimension League at #RoboCup2024.

Falcons vs Robotic Membership Toulon pic.twitter.com/GHcNLOx2nV

— AIhub (@aihuborg) July 20, 2024

I spoke to António Ribeiro, who’s a member of the technical committee and a part of Group LAR@MSL from the College of Minho, Portugal. The group began in 1998, however António and most of his colleagues on the present group have solely been concerned within the MSL since September 2022. The robots have developed because the competitors has progressed, and additional enhancements are in progress. Refinements thus far have included communication, the detection system, and the management system. They’re happy with the enhancements from the earlier RoboCup. “Final yr we had plenty of {hardware} points, however this yr the {hardware} appears fairly secure. We additionally modified our coding structure and it’s now a lot simpler and sooner for us to develop code as a result of we are able to all work on the code on the similar time on totally different modules”.

António cited versatility and cost-effective options as strengths of the group. “Our robotic is definitely very low-cost in comparison with different groups. We use plenty of outdated chassis, and our options all the time go to the bottom price doable. Some groups have a number of thousand greenback robots, however, for instance, our imaginative and prescient system is round $70-80. It really works fairly properly – we have to enhance the way in which we deal with it, but it surely appears secure”.

Group LAR@MSL

The RoboCup@Residence league goals to develop service and assistive robotic expertise with excessive relevance for future private home functions. A set of benchmark assessments is used to judge the robots’ skills and efficiency in a practical non-standardized residence atmosphere setting. These assessments embody serving to to organize breakfast, clearing the desk, and storing groceries.

I arrived in time to observe the “stickler for the principles” problem, the place robots must navigate totally different rooms and guarantee that the folks inside (“friends” at a celebration) are sticking to 4 guidelines: 1) there’s one forbidden room – if a visitor is in there the robotic should alert them and ask them to comply with it into one other room), 2) everybody will need to have a drink of their hand – if not, the robotic directs them to a shelf with drinks, 3) no footwear to be worn in the home, 4) there ought to be no garbage left on the ground.

After watching an try from the LAR@Residence robotic, Tiago from the group informed me a bit concerning the robotic. “The aim is to develop a robotic able to multi general-purpose duties in residence and healthcare environments.” Aside from the robotic arm, all the {hardware} was constructed by the group. The robotic has two RGBD cameras, two LIDARs, a tray (the place the robotic can retailer gadgets that it wants to hold), and two emergency cease buttons that deactivate all shifting elements. 4 omnidirectional wheels permit the robotic to maneuver in any route at any time. The wheels have impartial suspension programs which ensures that they will all be on the bottom always, even when there are bumps and cables on the venue ground. There’s a pill that acts as a visible interface, and a microphone and audio system to allow communication between people and the robotic, which is all finished by way of talking and listening.

Tiago informed me that the group have talked to quite a bit healthcare practitioners to search out out the principle issues confronted by aged folks, and this impressed certainly one of their robotic options. “They mentioned that the 2 most important damage sources are from when individuals are attempting to sit down down or get up, and when they’re attempting to choose one thing up from the ground. We developed a torso that may decide objects from the ground one metre away from the robotic”.

The LAR@Residence group.

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