Interview with Roberto Figueiredo: the RoboCup expertise

Roberto Figueiredo is a grasp’s scholar 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 presently 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 just 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 prior to now, however simulation gave me a little bit of an introduction to the extra theoretical facets of robotics, and to AI typically. Rescue simulation makes you consider methods to make the robots impartial 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 a tremendous RoboCup, however a tremendous journey. That’s one other advantage of robotics, you get to fulfill lots of new individuals in new nations. 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 fascinating occasion and I obtained to talk 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 get entangled with a serious league RoboCup group.

There’s a large hole between the junior and main leagues. After 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 scholar so it was fairly laborious to choose up all of the data. Nonetheless, if you’re persistent sufficient and you have an interest in, and obsessed with, robotics you’ll get the hold of it and also you’ll study by trial and error.

EuroRoboCup 2022 in Portugal. Roberto (kneeling in picture) 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 wish to, nonetheless, there may be way 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 enjoying, and we couldn’t work out 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 instructed us the best way to clear up it. I don’t assume 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 data. 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 distinct nation and a distinct type of training. After I joined, I knew there was a group so I used to be already trying ahead to becoming a member of. After a few years of labor, we lastly obtained to go to a contest as a group. It’s been a tremendous 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 lots of issues to unravel – on each the {hardware} and software program facet. All of us presently are laptop 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 completed some 3d modelling for the robots, and I’m presently 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 study from everybody. Robotics is a really multidisciplinary discipline. You get to study every kind of subjects: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, machine studying, coding typically.

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

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

This 12 months we had been much more ready than final 12 months, once we’d simply come again from COVID, and all of our skilled members had just lately left the group, resulting from ending their PhDs and beginning work. Making a profitable robotic group is a big integration drawback. There are such a lot of items that have to go collectively and work completely for the robots to operate, and if one fails it seems like your system isn’t doing something. We obtained strolling working completely this 12 months, we had imaginative and prescient working nicely too, and we had a secure 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 forth.). Nonetheless, we had some bugs within the determination tree that made all the pieces disintegrate and we spent lots of time attempting to debug it. This occurs to lots of groups. Nonetheless, you possibly can nonetheless respect the work and progress of what they’ve completed.

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

What are the instant plans for the group?

We are actually fascinated about 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 kind of laborious. You want an excellent simulation base to have the ability to switch straight the data to the robotic. We’re engaged on having an excellent simulation so we will switch, a minimum of extra simply, the data learnt in simulation to the robots.

RoboCup is shifting extra in direction of AI and studying, which we will see within the 3d simulation. The robots study lots of the movement by way of reinforcement studying, for instance. Within the bodily leagues it’s not as straightforward as we have now to switch that to the actual world, the place there may be play within the joints, there’s backlash, there’s play within the 3d elements – there are lots 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 am going to RoboCup I come out fascinated about what I’m going to do subsequent. I couldn’t be extra impressed. It’s a very intense discipline however I find it irresistible. It makes you wish to work actually laborious 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 advanced and fascinating problem. There is no such thing as a one single resolution.

About Roberto

Roberto Figueiredo is a Portuguese, AI-focused laptop scientist with a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Hertfordshire. He presently pursuing a grasp’s in Robotics and Clever Programs from the College of Aveiro, and is obsessed with advancing his experience in robotics. He has lengthy been very smitten by 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 Measurement league, one of the difficult in RoboCup Humanoid Soccer.

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