RoboCup humanoid league: Interview with Jasper Güldenstein

RoboCup is a global scientific initiative with the aim of advancing the cutting-edge of clever robots, AI and automation. The annual RoboCup occasion returned to an in-person format for 2022, happening from 13-17 July in Bangkok. RoboCup contains plenty of leagues, with maybe probably the most well-known being the soccer leagues.

In 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, in regards to the competitors at RoboCup 2022, and in addition in regards to the Humanoid League Virtual Season. As a biweekly digital competitors happening between the bodily RoboCup occasions it gives groups with a possibility to check their concepts and keep up a correspondence all year long.

Could you give us an summary 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. Although quite a lot of groups got here with fewer contributors than they often do, we nonetheless managed to have 12 groups within the child dimension league and three groups within the grownup dimension. Unfortunately, some groups couldn’t take part resulting from 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 the start we had a drop-in spherical, which is the place we play video games with one robotic from every workforce collaborating in a joint workforce. So, now we have eight robots taking part in from eight totally different groups. That is beneficial for locating out which groups are more likely to carry out one of the best within the competitors. Next, 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, now we have a knockout competitors. The seeding methodology implies that we are able to hopefully keep away from the scenario the place excellent groups get kicked out early. We noticed that probably the most attention-grabbing video games have been in direction of the top of the competitors when the groups carried out very well.

Have you observed enhancements for the reason that final bodily competitors?

I’d say undoubtedly that one huge factor that has improved for lots of groups is the localisation. Lots of groups are extra simply capable of localise themselves on the sphere, they usually don’t run off randomly. They are extra sure that they’re within the right place.

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

In phrases of laptop imaginative and prescient, this has undoubtedly improved fairly a bit. Something we did in another way 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 sport a ball was drawn randomly, so the groups couldn’t actually put together for all of the balls. Although they have been visually fairly totally different, the groups didn’t actually have any issues detecting the ball. We’ve seen, typically, that laptop 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 is a change from three, 4, 5 years in the past, the place many groups used hand-tuned classical laptop imaginative and prescient algorithms.

To discuss a bit extra about ball detection, it will likely be attention-grabbing to see what occurs if we transfer to an atmosphere with pure and/or various mild circumstances. 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 even perhaps fields which might be 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 contributors will discover approaches to make their imaginative and prescient method sturdy towards these various circumstances.

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

Thinking in regards to the switch from the simulation to the actual world, are there any particular components that lend themselves properly to being transferred?

In phrases of laptop imaginative and prescient, we had a little bit of switch. In the digital season we concentrated rather a lot on altering the lighting circumstances and having different backgrounds, to have the ability to emulate the actual world a bit higher. I feel a couple of groups used their imaginative and prescient approaches from the digital season in the actual world.

However, I feel the strongest half is behaviour. Teams have been capable of take a look at 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 a couple of modifications to their technique they usually had sturdy programs working. Their technique labored very well, and within the closing they managed to attain a number of targets win towards the earlier world champions (Rhoban Football Club).

How did the competitors go to your workforce (Hamburg Bit-Bots)?

We truly had fairly a couple of {hardware} issues, particularly on the mechanics aspect. The motors are sporting out and warped resulting from put on, and flexed greater than we anticipated. This meant we had difficulties strolling stably. And, for those who can’t stroll in a secure method that defeats the aim of every thing 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’ll be able to change through the competitors as you don’t have a lot spare tools with you.

However, what was good for us was that we had quite a lot of software program up and working, and quite a lot of it had been examined very well through the digital league. We needed to attempt to discover a method 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 ideas.

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

Yes, 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, equivalent to logging the video games to extract some attention-grabbing metrics and doing a little evaluation on these.

Another factor we need to do is area randomisation, making the atmosphere a bit extra different. This implies that the approaches should be extra sturdy. The hope is that, when they’re extra sturdy, they are often transferred extra simply to the actual world. We have been enthusiastic about making the terrain barely uneven. Another method may very well be to change the fashions of the robots such that the joints emulate a bit of damage, in order that they simulated actuators may be a bit weaker or stronger randomly, and groups have to search out sturdy approaches to take care of that.

We gained’t do every thing at the start. We’ll transfer by way of the season and discuss to the groups and kind some organising teams to develop the simulation additional, to run the video games and to organise the competitors itself. We are at all times completely satisfied to have enter and we at all times discuss to the groups to see what they suppose. It’s a contest but it surely’s one thing we construct collectively.

Humanoid robots at RoboCup 2022, Bangkok.

Could you inform us in regards to the satellite tv for pc occasion that passed off at RoboCup?

This was a dialogue about methods to get groups extra inquisitive about collaborating and methods to bridge the junior leagues and the most important leagues.

We know that some individuals who participated in RoboCup Junior particularly chosen a University that has a RoboCup workforce in order that they may be a part of that workforce. It can be superior for extra individuals to do that, and for extra juniors to know what the most important 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 can 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 pupil at University 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 growing not solely the software program of the workforce 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-Events, interview