This is the seventh time in a row that the B-Human team of the University of Bremen and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) has successfully defended its title by winning the RoboCup German Open. In an exciting final the Bremen team beat the runner up to the last championship, the Nao-Team HTWK from Leipzig 4:1. And once again, as in the year before, the B-Human team was also awarded the accolade for “Best Matches”.
Up to half-time it could have gone either way
Up to the break for half-time the outcome was completely open. Both teams had won their semi-finals with scores of 7:0. Before the final match their respective opponents, Berlin United (Humboldt University of Berlin) and the Nao Devils (Technical University of Dortmund) settled who would take third place in a penalty shoot off (4:3 for Berlin). During the first half B-Human scored the first goal to take the lead. Shortly before the break, though, the Leipzig Nao-Team HTWK managed to equalize. Then in the second half B-Human shot ahead by scoring another three goals. The B-Human team played convincingly, showing good tackling ability, sound coordination, and clever tactics leading up to putting the ball over the line.
The competition goes to another level
This is the second year that in addition to the regular championship round the RoboCup German Open has included a competition involving teams mixed on a selection basis. The mixed teams comprise players selected from different teams. The main objective here is to observe how well the robots perform as individual players. This is evaluated on a points basis. In this event, too, B-Human successfully defended its title against the kickers from Leipzig.
This year’s competition included three other important new features which also serve to raise the difficulty threshold: the goalposts were painted white instead of yellow, making it much more difficult for the robots to pick them out. This is because the color white is more prominent in the area surrounding the “turf”, and the NAOs themselves are colored white. Moreover, the individual teams were allowed to design their own shirts, making it easier for the spectators to identify which teams were playing. However, the robots also have to be able to recognize the different shirts. B-Human and the Leipzig Nao-Team HTWK took advantage of this and played in their traditional colors of black and blue respectively. The third new challenge was that in the matches following the semi-finals the NAOs had to identify the referee’s whistle. This proved to be no obstacle for B-Human, the Nao-Team HTWK, and Berlin United.
About the B-Human team
Currently, the B-Human team comprises 11 students of the University of Bremen and their supervisors, Dr. Thomas Röfer from the DFKI Research Group Cyber-Physical Systems, led by Professor Rolf Drechsler, and Dr. Tim Laue from the University of Bremen. B-Human has been participating in the RoboCup German Open and the World Championship in the Standard Platform League since 2009. In that time they have been German champions no less than seven times – and four times world champions.
If you would like to have more information, please contact:
University of Bremen
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) GmbH
Research area Cyber-Physical Systems
Dr. Thomas Röfer
Group: +49 421 218-64200
e-mail: Thomas.Roeferprotect me ?!dfkiprotect me ?!.de
DFKI press contact:
Franziska Martin, M.A.
Communications team DFKI Bremen
Phone: +49 421 17845-4111
