Robo-footballer B-Human: World champion from another planet
A long drawn out, “Well…” and then, "That was good. It's always nice when you win." So dry, so North German and so likeably modest is Dr Tim Laue's answer to the question of how it feels to be the new world champion in robot football. This is the ninth time that the University of Bremen’s Team B-Human, which is also supported by the alumni association, has been world champion. And this time they won all their games, 48 to 0! Here is artificial intelligence made in Bremen, robot football from another planet. After their magnificent success at RoboCup 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand, the programmers from Bremen made a remarkable promise.
Six students and three research assistants from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the University of Bremen took part in RoboCup 2022 in Bangkok at the beginning of July. Ten other team members remained in Bremen. The winning B-Human team was completed by the football-playing robots and their core control systems, the software developed in Bremen. For two years, the World Cup could not take place due to the pandemic. "We made good use of the Corona break," says Dr Laue, "and made a lot of changes to our software. The many automations we implemented meant a big leap forward for our team on the pitch. The passing game has also improved enormously." So the players functioned perfectly well, but their human companions had to endure tough tests, says Dr Laue, who has been with B-Human since the beginning: "It was always over 30 degrees in Bangkok, day and night. But the hall felt like a refrigerator, with an air vent right above our football pitch. After two days, some team members had severe colds."
But even that couldn't dampen the Bremen team's victory march. Unlike in real football, the B-Human team wants (of their own accord) to make sure that their competitive advantage over the other teams melts away. After tournaments, many teams publish portions of their software, which programmers from other universities are then allowed to copy and develop further themselves. However, one's own programming share must always be recognisable. "This year, we want to publish our complete source code," Dr Laue announces. "This will give all teams a comprehensive look inside and they can adopt the elements that are valuable to them." A great gesture and at the same time a new challenge for the Uni Bremen software developers before RoboCup 2023 in Bordeaux.
Visit the Uni Bremen website for more information.
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