#RoboCup2024 – day by day digest: 20 July

The Customary Platform Soccer League in motion.

That is the second of our day by day digests from RoboCup2024 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. In case you missed the primary digest, which provides some background to RoboCup, you could find it right here.

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

The RoboCup@Work league focusses on robots in work-related situations, 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 check. Robots need to autonomously navigate, choosing up and inserting objects at completely different work stations. On this superior check, warning tape is added to the world flooring, which the robots ought to keep away from travelling over. There may be additionally a posh inserting component the place groups need to put an object that they’ve collected right into a slot – get the orientation or placement of the thing barely mistaken and the it received’t fall into the slot.

The RoboCup@Work enviornment simply earlier than competitors begin.

Eight groups are participating within the league this 12 months. 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 Crew MiRobot. They’re primarily based on the College of New South Wales and are attending RoboCup for the primary time.

Crew MiRobot from UNSW.

The group truly solely began six months in the past, so remaining preparations have been a bit worrying. Nevertheless, 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 characteristic of the group’s robotic is the bespoke, in-house-designed greedy mechanism on the top of the arm. The group word that “it has good versatile jaws, so when it grabs spherical objects it truly pulls the thing immediately into it. As a result of it makes use of a linear movement, in comparison with plenty of different rotating jaws, it has rather a lot higher reliability for selecting up objects”.

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

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

— AIhub (@aihuborg) July 20, 2024

Crew Singapore inserting an object within the RoboCup@Work superior navigation check pic.twitter.com/SvgLBOaVo7

— AIhub (@aihuborg) July 20, 2024

Within the Center Dimension Soccer league (MSL), groups of 5 totally autonomous robots play with an everyday dimension FIFA ball. Groups are free to design their very own {hardware} however all sensors need to 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 12 months.

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 Crew 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 advanced 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 12 months we had plenty of {hardware} points, however this 12 months the {hardware} appears fairly secure. We additionally modified our coding structure and it’s now a lot simpler and quicker for us to develop code as a result of we are able to all work on the code on the identical time on completely 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 previous chassis, and our options all the time go to the bottom value potential. 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 best way we deal with it, however it appears secure”.

Crew LAR@MSL

The RoboCup@Dwelling league goals to develop service and assistive robotic expertise with excessive relevance for future private home purposes. A set of benchmark exams is used to judge the robots’ talents and efficiency in a practical non-standardized dwelling surroundings setting. These exams embrace serving to to organize breakfast, clearing the desk, and storing groceries.

I arrived in time to look at the “stickler for the foundations” problem, the place robots need to navigate completely different rooms and make it possible for the folks inside (“friends” at a celebration) are sticking to 4 guidelines: 1) there may be one forbidden room – if a visitor is in there the robotic should alert them and ask them to observe 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 needs to be no garbage left on the ground.

After watching an try from the LAR@Dwelling robotic, Tiago from the group advised me a bit concerning the robotic. “The aim is to develop a robotic able to multi general-purpose duties in dwelling and healthcare environments.” Excluding the robotic arm, the entire {hardware} was constructed by the group. The robotic has two RGBD cameras, two LIDARs, a tray (the place the robotic can retailer objects that it wants to hold), and two emergency cease buttons that deactivate all transferring components. 4 omnidirectional wheels permit the robotic to maneuver in any route at any time. The wheels have unbiased suspension programs which ensures that they’ll all be on the bottom always, even when there are bumps and cables on the venue flooring. 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 accomplished by way of talking and listening.

Tiago advised me that the group have talked to rather a lot healthcare practitioners to seek out out the principle issues confronted by aged folks, and this impressed one in every of their robotic options. “They mentioned that the 2 essential harm sources are from when individuals are making an attempt to sit down down or arise, and when they’re making an attempt to select one thing up from the ground. We developed a torso that may choose objects from the ground one metre away from the robotic”.

The LAR@Dwelling group.

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