Roberto Figueiredo is a grasp’s pupil on the College of Aveiro. He’s a member of the Daring Hearts RoboCup staff which competes within the Humanoid KidSize soccer league. He’s at the moment the native consultant for the Junior Rescue Simulation. We spoke to Roberto about his RoboCup journey, from the junior to the main 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 usually. I’d been working with electronics up to now, however simulation gave me a little bit of an introduction to the extra theoretical elements of robotics, and to AI usually. Rescue simulation makes you consider methods to make the robots impartial and never manually managed by people.

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

May you inform us in regards to the subsequent RoboCup occasions that you just 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 benefit of robotics, you get to fulfill a variety of new individuals in new international locations. We did fairly nicely on this competitors as nicely, 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 attention-grabbing occasion and I bought 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 staff.

There’s a huge hole between the junior and main leagues. After I joined my staff (the Daring Hearts), many of the staff have been PhDs and I used to be only a second 12 months bachelor’s pupil so it was fairly laborious to select up all of the information. Nonetheless, in case you are persistent sufficient and you have an interest in, and enthusiastic about, robotics you’ll get the grasp of it and also you’ll study by trial and error.

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

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

My first competitors was truly final 12 months, in Thailand. We didn’t carry out as we wish to, nevertheless, there’s way 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 enjoying, and we couldn’t determine what was taking place. I requested one other staff that was utilizing the identical software program – they’d discovered the issue earlier than they usually informed us how you can resolve it. I don’t assume you’ll see that in different competitions. Each staff 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 a part of the Daring Hearts staff?

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 schooling. After I joined, I knew there was a staff so I used to be already wanting ahead to becoming a member of. After a few years of labor, we lastly bought to go to a contest as a staff. It’s been an incredible time and an enormous studying expertise.

What’s your function on the staff?

In our staff, everybody does a little bit of the whole lot. We nonetheless have a variety of issues to unravel – on each the {hardware} and software program aspect. All of us at the moment 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 the whole lot, each AI and non-AI associated issues. For instance, I’ve achieved some 3d modelling for the robots, and I’m at the moment engaged on the balancing downside. All of us work collectively on the issues which is superb since you get to see a little bit of the whole lot and study from everybody. Robotics is a really multidisciplinary area. You get to study every kind of subjects: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, machine studying, coding usually.

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

May you inform us about this 12 months’s competitors (which passed off 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 just lately left the staff, because of ending their PhDs and beginning work. Making a profitable robotic staff is a large integration downside. There are such a lot of items that must go collectively and work completely for the robots to perform, and if one fails it appears to be like like your system isn’t doing something. We bought strolling working completely this 12 months, we had imaginative and prescient working nicely too, and we had a secure choice tree, and we have been capable of hearken to the controller (which is sort of a referee and passes on details about fouls, recreation begin and stops and so on.). Nonetheless, we had some bugs within the choice tree that made the whole lot crumble and we spent a variety of time making an attempt to debug it. This occurs to a variety of groups. Nonetheless, you’ll be able to nonetheless respect the work and progress of what they’ve achieved.

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

What are the fast plans for the staff?

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 laborious. You want an excellent simulation base to have the ability to switch immediately the information to the robotic. We’re engaged on having an excellent simulation so we are able to switch, at the least extra simply, the information learnt in simulation to the robots.

RoboCup is transferring extra in the direction of AI and studying, which we are able to see within the 3d simulation. The robots study a variety of the movement by way of reinforcement studying, for instance. Within the bodily leagues it’s not as straightforward as we’ve to switch that to the actual world, the place there’s play within the joints, there’s backlash, there’s play within the 3d elements – there are a variety of variables that aren’t taken under 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 adore it. It makes you wish to work actually laborious and it makes you enthusiastic about science. I did my bachelor’s challenge associated to RoboCup, I joined a grasp’s course on robotics, I maintain asking my Professors in the event that they wish to begin a staff again in Portugal. I’m going to do my grasp’s thesis on robotics, on humanoids. I feel humanoids are a really complicated and attention-grabbing problem. There isn’t any 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 the moment pursuing a grasp’s in Robotics and Clever Techniques from the College of Aveiro, and is enthusiastic about advancing his experience in robotics. He has lengthy been very obsessed with robots and AI, being a participant in RoboCup since 2016 within the Rescue Simulation league. He has since develop into native consultant for the Rescue League in Portugal and joined a Main staff, Daring Hearts, within the Child Measurement league, one of the crucial difficult in RoboCup Humanoid Soccer.