RoboCup is a world scientific initiative with the aim of advancing the state-of-the-art of clever robots, AI and automation. The annual RoboCup occasion returned to an in-person format for 2022, going down from 13-17 July in Bangkok. RoboCup includes a variety of leagues, with maybe probably the most well-known being the soccer leagues.

Within the Humanoid League, autonomous robots with a human-inspired physique plan and senses play soccer towards one another. We spoke to Jasper Güldenstein, a member of the technical committee, concerning the competitors at RoboCup 2022, and in addition concerning the Humanoid League Digital Season. As a biweekly digital competitors going down between the bodily RoboCup occasions it supplies groups with a possibility to check their concepts and keep up a correspondence all year long.

Might you give us an outline of the Humanoid League competitors at RoboCup this yr?

This yr we had the primary in-person occasion after a 3 yr break. It was actually good to have nearly all of the groups coming again collectively and dealing on their robots once more. Though a variety of groups got here with fewer individuals than they often do, we nonetheless managed to have 12 groups within the child dimension league and three groups within the grownup dimension. Sadly, some groups couldn’t take part as a consequence of journey restrictions, however we hope to see them again subsequent yr.

Humanoid league finalists with their robots

What was the format for the competitors?

At first we had a drop-in spherical, which is the place we play video games with one robotic from every group collaborating in a joint group. So, we now have eight robots taking part in from eight totally different groups. That’s helpful for locating out which groups are prone to carry out one of the best within the competitors. Subsequent, the outcomes from the drop-in video games have been used as seeding for the spherical robin part of the common competitors, with the strongest groups separated into totally different teams. After the spherical robin, we now have a knockout competitors. The seeding methodology signifies that we are able to hopefully keep away from the state of affairs the place excellent groups get kicked out early. We noticed that probably the most fascinating video games have been in direction of the top of the competitors when the groups carried out very well.

Have you ever observed enhancements because the final bodily competitors?

I’d say undoubtedly that one large factor that has improved for lots of groups is the localisation. Lots of groups are extra simply in a position to localise themselves on the sphere, and so they don’t run off randomly. They’re extra sure that they’re within the appropriate place.

Moreover, I feel the kicking has improved. The robots kick the ball a lot additional than they used to. Individuals have been tuning their kicking motions to extend the space.

By way of pc imaginative and prescient, this has undoubtedly improved fairly a bit. One thing we did otherwise this time, which was impressed by what we did within the digital season, is that we had a set of six totally different balls, all from earlier FIFA competitions. For every recreation a ball was drawn randomly, so the groups couldn’t actually put together for all of the balls. Though they have been visually fairly totally different, the groups didn’t actually have any issues detecting the ball. We’ve seen, usually, that pc imaginative and prescient approaches have improved and these enhancements have been transferred to the RoboCup competitors. I feel that the majority groups are utilizing a neural community to detect the ball. This can be a change from three, 4, 5 years in the past, the place many groups used hand-tuned classical pc imaginative and prescient algorithms.

To speak a bit extra about ball detection, it is going to be fascinating to see what occurs if we transfer to an setting with pure and/or various mild situations. This yr we have been in a conference corridor with uniform lighting. I imagine subsequent yr, in Bordeaux, there’s going to be some type of pure mild coming in, and maybe even fields which are exterior. It’s nonetheless on the starting stage however we’re wanting ahead to that. It will likely be a problem and I strongly imagine that the individuals will discover approaches to make their imaginative and prescient method strong towards these various situations.

The setup and testing for the Humanoid League competitors at RoboCup 2022, Bangkok.

Desirous about the switch from the simulation to the true world, are there any particular parts that lend themselves properly to being transferred?

By way of pc imaginative and prescient, we had a little bit of switch. Within the digital season we concentrated rather a lot on altering the lighting situations and having diverse backgrounds, to have the ability to emulate the true world a bit higher. I feel just a few groups used their imaginative and prescient approaches from the digital season in the true world.

Nonetheless, I feel the strongest half is behaviour. Groups have been in a position to check their methods within the digital competitors and adapt each different week. For instance, CIT Brains, which gained the digital season and the bodily competitors, made fairly just a few modifications to their technique and so they had strong programs working. Their technique labored very well, and within the remaining they managed to attain a number of targets win towards the earlier world champions (Rhoban Soccer Membership).

How did the competitors go in your group (Hamburg Bit-Bots)?

We truly had fairly just a few {hardware} issues, particularly on the mechanics facet. The motors are sporting out and warped as a consequence of put on, and flexed greater than we anticipated. This meant we had difficulties strolling stably. And, in the event you can’t stroll in a secure method that defeats the aim of the whole lot else. It’s a extremely built-in system – if one element breaks, you might be out of luck as you might be very restricted in what you may change through the competitors as you don’t have a lot spare gear with you.

Nonetheless, what was good for us was that we had a variety of software program up and working, and a variety of it had been examined very well through the digital league. We needed to try to discover a means around the strolling downside algorithmically, to attempt to discover strolling parameters that have been extra secure. We additionally switched from [robot operating system] ROS 1 to ROS 2 which introduced with it many challenges. We truly did a write up on the problems we confronted, with some tips and suggestions.

Will there be a brand new digital league season this yr?

Sure, we’ve mentioned this in our technical committee and we plan on doing it once more. The final occasion was profitable and the groups loved it. We plan on making some modifications, similar to logging the video games to extract some fascinating metrics and performing some evaluation on these.

One other factor we need to do is area randomisation, making the setting a bit extra diverse. Which means that the approaches should be extra strong. The hope is that, when they’re extra strong, they are often transferred extra simply to the true world. We have been interested by making the terrain barely uneven. One other method could possibly be to switch the fashions of the robots such that the joints emulate a bit of wear and tear, so that they simulated actuators is likely to be a bit weaker or stronger randomly, and groups have to seek out strong approaches to cope with that.

We gained’t do the whole lot at the start. We’ll transfer by way of the season and speak to the groups and type some organising teams to develop the simulation additional, to run the video games and to organise the competitors itself. We’re all the time pleased to have enter and we all the time speak to the groups to see what they assume. It’s a contest nevertheless it’s one thing we construct collectively.

Humanoid robots at RoboCup 2022, Bangkok.

Might you inform us concerning the satellite tv for pc occasion that passed off at RoboCup?

This was a dialogue about the way to get groups extra curious about collaborating and the way to bridge the junior leagues and the key leagues.

We all know that some individuals who participated in RoboCup Junior particularly chosen a College that has a RoboCup group in order that they may be a part of that group. It might be superior for extra individuals to do that, and for extra juniors to know what the key league is about.

To bridge the hole between the junior and main leagues we don’t need to introduce one other league, however we would like some type of occasions the place the 2 teams can meet, and the place the juniors can exhibit how properly they’re doing. It might be good to have extra interplay between the leagues, though we haven’t selected the precise format but.

About Jasper

Jasper Güldenstein is a PhD scholar at College of Hamburg. His analysis focuses on humanoid navigation. He has been collaborating in RoboCup as a member of the Hamburg Bit-Bots since 2016 the place his focus is creating not solely the software program of the group but additionally the electronics of the robotic platform. In his current grasp thesis he evaluated utilizing reinforcement studying to carry out path planning and execution for humanoid robots.

tags: c-Occasions, interview