Interview with Roberto Figueiredo: the RoboCup expertise

Roberto Figueiredo is a grasp’s pupil on the College of Aveiro. He’s a member of the Daring Hearts RoboCup group which competes within the Humanoid KidSize soccer league. He’s at present the native consultant for the Junior Rescue Simulation. We spoke to Roberto about his RoboCup journey, from the junior to the foremost 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 facets of robotics, and to AI normally. Rescue simulation makes you consider methods to make the robots unbiased and never manually managed by people.

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

May you inform us concerning 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 advantage of robotics, you get to satisfy a number 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 acquired to speak 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 become involved with a significant league RoboCup group.

There’s a large hole between the junior and main leagues. Once I joined my group (the Daring Hearts), a lot of the group had been PhDs and I used to be only a second 12 months bachelor’s pupil so it was fairly exhausting to select up all of the information. Nonetheless, if you’re persistent sufficient and you have an interest in, and obsessed with, robotics you’ll get the dangle of it and also you’ll be taught 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 group within the main league?

My first competitors was truly final 12 months, in Thailand. We didn’t carry out as we want to, nonetheless, there may be rather 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 taking part in, and we couldn’t determine what was taking place. I requested one other group that was utilizing the identical software program – they’d discovered the issue earlier than and so they informed us find out how to remedy it. I don’t suppose you’ll see that in different competitions. Each group 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 part of the Daring Hearts group?

I made a decision to do my grasp’s within the UK (on the College of Hertfordshire), to expertise a special nation and a special type of training. Once I joined, I knew there was a group so I used to be already wanting ahead to becoming a member of. After a few years of labor, we lastly acquired to go to a contest as a group. It’s been an incredible time and an enormous studying expertise.

What’s your position on the group?

In our group, everybody does a little bit of all the pieces. We nonetheless have a number of issues to resolve – on each the {hardware} and software program facet. All of us at present are pc scientists so it’s a bit extra of a wrestle to work on the {hardware} facet. So, I do a little bit of all the pieces, each AI and non-AI associated issues. For instance, I’ve executed some 3d modelling for the robots, and I’m at present engaged on the balancing drawback. All of us work collectively on the issues which is wonderful since you get to see a little bit of all the pieces and be taught from everybody. Robotics is a really multidisciplinary discipline. You get to study all types of subjects: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, machine studying, coding normally.

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

May you inform us about this 12 months’s competitors (which befell in Bordeaux)?

This 12 months we had been much more ready than final 12 months, after we’d simply come again from COVID, and all of our skilled members had just lately left the group, attributable to ending their PhDs and beginning work. Making a profitable robotic group is a large integration drawback. There are such a lot of items that must go collectively and work completely for the robots to perform, and if one fails it seems to be like your system isn’t doing something. We acquired strolling working completely this 12 months, we had imaginative and prescient working nicely too, and we had a steady determination tree, and we had been in a position to take heed 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 determination tree that made all the pieces crumble and we spent a number of time making an attempt to debug it. This occurs to a number of groups. Nonetheless, you possibly can nonetheless respect the work and progress of what they’ve executed.

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

What are the fast plans for the group?

We at the moment are fascinated by 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 exhausting. You want a superb 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, a minimum of 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 be taught a number of the movement by means of reinforcement studying, for instance. Within the bodily leagues it’s not as simple as we now have to switch that to the true world, the place there may be play within the joints, there’s backlash, there’s play within the 3d components – there are a number 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 by what I’m going to do subsequent. I couldn’t be extra impressed. It’s a extremely intense discipline however I like it. It makes you wish to work actually exhausting and it makes you obsessed with science. I did my bachelor’s challenge associated to RoboCup, I joined a grasp’s course on robotics, I hold asking my Professors in the event that they wish to begin a group 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 is no such thing as a one single answer.

About Roberto

Roberto Figueiredo is a Portuguese, AI-focused pc scientist with a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Hertfordshire. He at present pursuing a grasp’s in Robotics and Clever Techniques from the College of Aveiro, and is obsessed with advancing his experience in robotics. He has lengthy been very captivated with robots and AI, being a participant in RoboCup since 2016 within the Rescue Simulation league. He has since change into native consultant for the Rescue League in Portugal and joined a Main group, Daring Hearts, within the Child Dimension league, some of the difficult in RoboCup Humanoid Soccer.