RoboCup Junior

Last updated

RoboCup Junior (RCJ), sometimes stylised RobocupJunior, is a division of RoboCup, [1] a not-for-profit robotics organisation. It focuses on education and aims to introduce the larger goals of the RoboCup project (creating robots) to primary and secondary school aged children (technically up through age 19). Participants compete in one of three main leagues: Soccer, Rescue or Dance. Dance Theatre also exists as a sub-league of Dance, and Premier Rescue is part of the competition in Australia and New Zealand.

Contents

History

RoboCup Jr Soccer was invented and started back in 1998 with a demonstration held by Henrik Hautop Lund and Luigi Pagliarini [2] at the RoboCup international competition held in Paris, France. [3] In 1999, an interactive workshop and competition was held by Henrik Hautop Lund and Luigi Pagliarini [4] at the RoboCup international competition in Stockholm, Sweden. The following year in 2000, the first international RoboCup Junior Educational competition was held in Melbourne, Australia. The format for RoboCup Junior was devised by a Melbourne committee of teachers and industry representatives. The first competition introduced the three level competition of Dance, Sumo(later to become Rescue) and Soccer.

Then-prime minister of Australia, John Howard, was impressed in 2001 when he visited students competing in a RoboCup Junior Australia competition, congratulating both teachers and students for their accomplishments. [5]

Queen Elizabeth II was also impressed in 2002 on a trip to Australia, pointing out the complexity of what students were accomplishing. [6]

International competitions

Each year, an international competition is run around the same time, and at the same location, as the RoboCup competition. The location changes each year, and in the past has seen events held at:

Besides the international competition there are national and regional competitions around the world. Often teams have to qualify at their local competition to be admitted to the world championship. For example, in Germany, where RoboCup Junior is very popular, teams start on one of several qualification tournaments with over 300 teams, before advancing to the German Open and finally, the World Championships.

Challenges

Soccer challenge

Two teams each place two robots (which they have designed and created) on a playing field. The aim of the game is for each team of robots to play a fully autonomous game of soccer. The robots detect the infrared-emitting ball and use this as well as other specialised sensors, such as sonars, compasses and cameras to locate themselves and the opposition's goal. These robots must each be able to fit into a cylinder which is 220 mm in diameter and height. [26]

Originally, the soccer field had a grayscale plastic floor allowing the robots to locate themselves along the field. [27] In 2007, this was replaced with the GENII (Generation 2) field which had different shades of green plastic, which allowed light sensors to be used to more accurately determine location (this field is still used in Australia, New Zealand, and is now also used in the World Robot Olympiad). [28] In 2009, the field was replaced with plain green felt. [29] This change was aimed at making the game more realistic by creating greater reliance on the goal location and walls rather than the ground. The change, however, has been controversial with many teams having problems with quality of the felt.

When RoboCup Junior was first formed, almost all teams used Lego Mindstorms construction kits to build their robots. In more recent years, especially at the World Championships, some teams have been using more advanced technology and designs in their robots. Custom printed circuit boards, actuator devices (for kicking), cameras and advanced micro controllers have become common place at the international competition.

Rescue Line | Maze challenge

Since inception, the rescue challenge has gone through a number of iterations, increasing in difficulty. A map of Australia was used to demo the rescue challenge initially (and was subsequently used in Australia for a number of years). Subsequently, this was changed to a number of white tiles with black lines marked on them, which the robot had to follow. Internationally, this was replaced with a set of "rooms" that the robot had to search and move through by following a line; then added with an evacuation room for "victims" (colored balls) recognition. In 2011, Maze was introduced as an additional sub-league. Maze is new competition without lines where the robot had to detect heat-emitting and visual "victims". In additional robot is required to drop a "rescue-kit" to identify the victims as well.

Premier Rescue challenge

Premier Rescue is practiced in the Australian and New Zealand RoboCup Junior competitions. It is very similar to the Australian/New Zealand Rescue challenge except for some minor additions. The teams must capture the object within the marked area and place it on a platform. This is more difficult than the regular Australian/New Zealand Rescue challenge because the participants must construct a device to secure the object and lift it onto the platform.

OnStage challenge

Before 2015, it was divided into Dance and Dance Theatre Challenge. After 2014, it merged to have a single division called OnStage.

Dance challenge (before 2015)

A team creates both a robot and a dance composition. The aim of the competition is to create a two-minute dance performance choreographed to music; with particular attention going to construction and programming. Team members can join in to dance alongside the robot. A panel of judges decides the winner based on a number of different criteria. The dance competition is most popular amongst younger students, mostly of primary school ages. The robots range in size from 10 cm tall to 2/3 meters tall with intricate mechanical details.

Dance Theatre challenge (before 2015)

In Dance Theatre, teams build and program robots that act out a story-based song. For example, robots could be different characters featured in it. This section of RoboCup Junior is more difficult than Dance, as the robots must complete more specialised actions.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RoboCup</span> Annual robotics competition

RoboCup is an annual international robotics competition founded in 1996 by a group of university professors. The aim of the competition is to promote robotics and AI research by offering a publicly appealing – but formidable – challenge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qfix robot kit</span>

Qfix robot kits are an education tool for teaching robotics. They are used in schools, high schools and mechatronics training in companies. The robot kits are also used by hobby robot builders. The qfix kits are often found in the RoboCup Junior competition where soccer robots are built of the kit's components.

The Federation of International Robot-soccer Association [sic] (FIRA) is an international organisation organising competitive soccer – usually 5-a-side – competitions between autonomous robots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RoboCup Middle Size League</span>

As one of the founding leagues of the international RoboCup initiative, the RoboCup Middle Size League (MSL) robot soccer competition has been organised from 1997 onwards. On an indoor soccer field, with goals of reduced size, teams of five fully autonomous soccer playing robots compete against one another. No human intervention is allowed during a match, except to take robots on or from the field. Although limitations with respect to maximum size and weight are in place, teams are completely free to design both hardware and software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soccer robot</span>

A soccer robot is a specialized autonomous robot and mobile robot that is used to play variants of soccer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robofest</span> American youth competitive robotics league

Robofest is an autonomous robotics competition for 4th - 12th graders. It is similar to FIRST Lego League (FLL), but while FLL limits the student's robots to Lego Mindstorms robots, Robofest allows the student to use any robotics system, parts, materials, or even custom electronics, in some of the events. Note that FLL students are required to use parts manufactured by Lego only, preventing the use of such aids as string or glue. Another important difference is that Robofest games have UTF components. Students must solve the unveiled tasks and factors within 30 minutes work-time without external help. Lawrence Tech's Robofest was founded by Computer Science Professor Dr. Chan-Jin Chung in 1999–2000 academic year and is sponsored by Lawrence Technological University and other sponsors. LTU's Robofest is also held internationally, in countries including Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, England, France, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Macau, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, and UAE. Teams who win their regional event are welcome to participate at the worldwide tournament held at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan. ROBOFEST is a registered trademark of Lawrence Technological University. Robofest is one of the largest University led robotics competitions in the world for pre college students.

There are a number of competitions and prizes to promote research in artificial intelligence.


Iranian teams have been active participants of RoboCup events since 1998. The number of Iranian teams has been largely increasing over the past years. Thereby, the need to have a regional event seemed rather necessary. Furthermore, since the overall number world interested teams in RoboCup has increased; regional events may and can be a proper field for RoboCup leagues Technical Committees to see teams qualities for RoboCup World Competitions. IranOpen is a place for teams willing to take part in RoboCup World Competitions in order to show their qualities and standards. It is also a place for fresh teams to gain experience and become ready to join the world teams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nao (robot)</span> Small humanoid robot developed by the French company Aldebaran Robotics

Nao is an autonomous, programmable humanoid robot formerly developed by Aldebaran Robotics, a French robotics company headquartered in Paris, which was acquired by SoftBank Group in 2015 and rebranded as SoftBank Robotics. The robot's development began with the launch of Project Nao in 2004. On 15 August 2007, Nao replaced Sony's robot dog Aibo as the robot used in the RoboCup Standard Platform League (SPL), an international robot soccer competition. The Nao was used in RoboCup 2008 and 2009, and the NaoV3R was chosen as the platform for the SPL at RoboCup 2010.

Tomotaka Takahashi is a Japanese roboticist and founder of Kyoto University's ROBO-GARAGE since 2018. Takahashi creates humanoid robots known for their smooth, fluid motions and sleek appearance. Having built many humanoid robots entirely by himself, from simple concepts to production, Takahashi's designs have been featured in several art exhibitions celebrating the creation of Astroboy, Time Magazine's Coolest Inventions of 2004, and promotions for Bandai, Panasonic, and Pepsi. He has also worked with toy companies to produce relatively inexpensive robots for the hobby market, including those for Kyosho.

Robocup Rescue Simulation is an education and research project intended to promote the development of robotic agents for search and rescue. The project was initiated in reaction to the Great Hanshin earthquake, which hit Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, on 17 January 1995, killing more than six thousand people, most of them in the city of Kobe.

Almost Human: Making Robots Think is a book written by Lee Gutkind founder of Creative Nonfiction. Gutkind spent six years as a "fly on the wall" researcher at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He observed scientists and students working to design, build, and test robots so advanced that they will one day be able to work alongside or, in some cases, even replace humans. Almost Human is an intense portrait of the robotic subculture and the challenging quest for robot autonomy. Almost Human is 330 pages long and is published by W.W. Norton. In May 2007 Gutkind appeared as a guest author on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to talk about robots, the future, and his book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RoboCup Standard Platform League</span>

The RoboCup Standard Platform League (SPL) is one of several leagues within RoboCup, an international competition with autonomous robotic soccer matches as the main event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rescue Robot League</span>

The RoboCup Rescue Robot League is an international competition for urban search and rescue robots, in which robots compete to find victims in a simulated earthquake environment. The rescue robot league is run alongside Robocup Rescue Simulation, as part of the RoboCup robot competition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RoboCup 3D Soccer Simulation League</span>

The RoboCup 3D Simulated Soccer League allows software agents to control humanoid robots to compete against one another in a realistic simulation of the rules and physics of a game of soccer. The platform strives to reproduce the software programming challenges faced when building real physical robots for this purpose. In doing so, it helps research towards the RoboCup Federation's goal of developing a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world soccer champion team in 2050.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DARwIn-OP</span> Humanoid robot developed by Robotis

DARwIn-OP is a miniature-humanoid robot platform developed and manufactured by Korean robot manufacturer Robotis in collaboration with Virginia Tech, Purdue University, and University of Pennsylvania. It is also supported by a $1.2 million NSF grant. DARwIn-OP has twenty degrees of freedom, each controlled by a DYNAMIXEL MX-28T servo motor.

The Marquette University Humanoid Engineering & Intelligent Robotics (HEIR) Lab was a robotics lab in Marquette University's College of Engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Stone (professor)</span> American professor of Computer science

Peter Stone is an American computer scientist who is the David Bruton Jr. Centennial Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, AAAI Fellow, and Fulbright Scholar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NimbRo</span> Competitive robotics team

NimbRo is the robot competition team of the Autonomous Intelligent Systems group of University of Bonn, Germany. It was founded in 2004 at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Oskar von Stryk is professor of simulation, system optimization and robotics at the department of computer science of the Technische Universität Darmstadt. He is known for his research on robotics.

References

  1. ↑ Official website
  2. ↑ Lund, Henrik Hautop; Arendt, Jens Aage; Fredslund, Jakob; Pagliarini, Luigi (1999). "Ola: What Goes Up, Must Fall Down". Journal of Artificial Life and Robotics. 4 (1). CiteSeerX   10.1.1.33.7637 .
  3. ↑ "RoboCup Junior 2001 Promotional Flier" (PDF). RoboCup Junior 2001 Committee. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  4. ↑ Lund, Henrik Hautop; Pagliarini, Luigi. "RoboCup Jr. with LEGO Mindstorms" (PDF). Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2000), New Jersey: IEEE Press, 2000. Retrieved 2013-07-09.
  5. ↑ "RoboCupJunior Australia impresses Australian Prime Minister". The RoboCup Federation. 2001-03-30. Archived from the original on 2007-03-12. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  6. ↑ "Queen Elizabeth II saw RoboCupJunior in Australia". The RoboCup Federation. February 2002. Archived from the original on 2007-03-12. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  7. ↑ "RoboCup Junior 2000 Official Website". RoboCup Junior 2000 Committee. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  8. ↑ "RoboCupJunior 2001 Official Website". RoboCup Junior 2001 Committee. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  9. ↑ "RoboCup Junior 2002 Official Website". RoboCupJunior 2002 Committee. Archived from the original on 2005-11-09. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  10. ↑ "RoboCup Junior 2003 Official Website". RoboCup Junior 2003 Committee. Archived from the original on 2005-11-09. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  11. ↑ "RoboCupJunior 2004 Official Website". RoboCup Junior 2004 Committee. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  12. ↑ "RoboCup Junior 2005 Official Website". RoboCup Junior 2005 Committee. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  13. ↑ "RoboCup Junior 2006 Official Website". RoboCupJunior 2006 Committee. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  14. ↑ "RoboCup Junior 2007 Official Website". RoboCup Junior 2007 Committee. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  15. ↑ "RoboCup World Championship Games". The RoboCup Federation. Archived from the original on 2007-02-23. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  16. ↑ "RoboCup 2009". TU Graz . Retrieved 2009-06-19.
  17. ↑ "RoboCup 2010". The RoboCup Federation. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
  18. ↑ "RoboCup 2011". The RoboCup Federation. Archived from the original on 2010-06-19. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
  19. ↑ "RoboCup 2012". The RoboCup Federation. Retrieved 2011-10-22.
  20. ↑ "RoboCup 2013". The RoboCup Federation. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
  21. ↑ "Robocup 2014". The Robocup Federation. Retrieved 2014-10-11.
  22. ↑ "RoboCup 2018". The RoboCup Federation. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  23. ↑ "RoboCup 2019". The RoboCup Federation. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  24. ↑ "RoboCup 2022". The RoboCup Federation. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  25. ↑ "RoboCup 2023". The RoboCup Federation. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  26. ↑ http://rcj.robocup.org/rcj2011/soccer_2011.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  27. ↑ http://titan.bloomfield.edu/facstaff/eeguchi/rcj_nyc-nj/RCJ08_soccer.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  28. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-23. Retrieved 2011-10-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  29. ↑ http://rcj.robocup.org/rcj2011/soccer_2011.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.