RoboCup humanoid league: Interview with Jasper Güldenstein

RoboCup is a global 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, happening from 13-17 July in Bangkok. RoboCup contains a lot of leagues, with maybe essentially 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, in regards to the competitors at RoboCup 2022, and likewise in regards to the Humanoid League Digital Season. As a biweekly digital competitors happening between the bodily RoboCup occasions it supplies groups with a possibility to check their concepts and be in contact all year long.

May 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. Though plenty of groups got here with fewer members 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 result 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 staff collaborating in a joint staff. So, we have now eight robots enjoying 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 had been used as seeding for the spherical robin section of the common competitors, with the strongest groups separated into totally different teams. After the spherical robin, we have now a knockout competitors. The seeding technique implies that we will hopefully keep away from the state of affairs the place excellent groups get kicked out early. We noticed that essentially the most attention-grabbing video games had been in direction of the top of the competitors when the groups carried out rather well.

Have you ever seen 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. A whole lot of groups are extra simply capable of localise themselves on the sector, they usually don’t run off randomly. They’re extra sure that they’re within the right place.

Moreover, I believe 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 gap.

When it comes to laptop imaginative and prescient, this has undoubtedly improved fairly a bit. One thing we did in a different 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. Though they had been visually fairly totally different, the groups didn’t actually have any issues detecting the ball. We’ve seen, on the whole, that laptop imaginative and prescient approaches have improved and these enhancements have been transferred to the RoboCup competitors. I believe 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 laptop imaginative and prescient algorithms.

To speak a bit extra about ball detection, it will likely be attention-grabbing to see what occurs if we transfer to an surroundings with pure and/or various mild circumstances. This yr we had been in a conference corridor with uniform lighting. I consider subsequent yr, in Bordeaux, there may be going to be some type of pure mild coming in, and even perhaps fields which can be exterior. It’s nonetheless on the starting stage however we’re trying ahead to that. It is going to be a problem and I strongly consider that the members will discover approaches to make their imaginative and prescient method strong towards these various circumstances.

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

Occupied with the switch from the simulation to the actual world, are there any particular parts that lend themselves properly to being transferred?

When it comes to laptop imaginative and prescient, we had a little bit of switch. Within the digital season we concentrated quite a bit on altering the lighting circumstances and having various backgrounds, to have the ability to emulate the actual world a bit higher. I believe a number of groups used their imaginative and prescient approaches from the digital season in the actual world.

Nevertheless, I believe the strongest half is behaviour. Groups had been capable of check their methods within the digital competitors and adapt each different week. For instance, CIT Brains, which received the digital season and the bodily competitors, made fairly a number of modifications to their technique they usually had strong techniques working. Their technique labored rather well, and within the last they managed to attain a number of targets win towards the earlier world champions (Rhoban Soccer Membership).

How did the competitors go on your staff (Hamburg Bit-Bots)?

We truly had fairly a number of {hardware} issues, particularly on the mechanics facet. The motors are sporting out and warped as a result of put on, and flexed greater than we anticipated. This meant we had difficulties strolling stably. And, in case you can’t stroll in a steady method that defeats the aim of all the pieces else. It’s a very built-in system – if one part breaks, you might be out of luck as you might be very restricted in what you possibly can change in the course of the competitors as you don’t have a lot spare tools with you.

Nevertheless, what was good for us was that we had plenty of software program up and working, and plenty of it had been examined rather well in the course of the digital league. We needed to attempt to discover a approach around the strolling drawback algorithmically, to attempt to discover strolling parameters that had been extra steady. 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?

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, comparable to logging the video games to extract some attention-grabbing metrics and performing some evaluation on these.

One other factor we wish to do is area randomisation, making the surroundings a bit extra various. Because of this the approaches should be extra strong. The hope is that, when they’re extra strong, they are often transferred extra simply to the actual world. We had been fascinated about making the terrain barely uneven. One other 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 could be a bit weaker or stronger randomly, and groups have to search out strong approaches to take care of that.

We received’t do all the pieces originally. We’ll transfer via the season and speak 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’re all the time glad to have enter and we all the time speak to the groups to see what they assume. It’s a contest however it’s one thing we construct collectively.

Humanoid robots at RoboCup 2022, Bangkok.

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

This was a dialogue about the right way to get groups extra enthusiastic about collaborating and the right way to bridge the junior leagues and the most important leagues.

We all know that some individuals who participated in RoboCup Junior particularly chosen a College that has a RoboCup staff in order that they might be a part of that staff. It will 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 wish 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 will 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 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 growing not solely the software program of the staff but additionally the electronics of the robotic platform. In his latest grasp thesis he evaluated utilizing reinforcement studying to carry out path planning and execution for humanoid robots.

tags: c-Occasions, interview