The Bremen robot kickers “Team B-Human” have recovered the championship title in the Standard League Platform of the RoboCup European Open held in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Team B-Human, runners up in the last world cup tournament, was victorious over the Nao-Team HTWK from Leipzig, who were semi-finalists in the world championship. The Bremen team won the final match with 5 goals to nil. This makes it eight years running that the team “co-managed” by the University of Bremen and the research area Cyber-Physical Systems of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence remains unbeaten on European level.
All teams in the Standard Platform League use the same robot model – the humanoid robot NAO produced by the French firm Aldebaran Robotics. The difference between them lies solely in the software used. During play, the NAOs act completely autonomously: They have to be capable of finding their way around on the “pitch”, making decisions, and then independently implementing them. Each team comprises five robots.
Strong defense
The cup final was a repeat of past years’ European RoboCup competitions, the finals always ending up a contest between the Bremen and Leipzig teams. This year the Bremen robots once again proved they have a clear edge over their most threatening rivals. Both teams were clear victors in the matches leading up to the final. Although the Leipzig kickers showed superior ball mastery in the final match and the play was mostly in the Bremen half, they ultimately failed in face of the strong Bremen defense. Targeted long shots and rapid countering eventually put the Bremen team in the lead and once again secured them the title.
Currently, Team B-Human comprises 27 students of the University of Bremen and their “manager” Dr. Thomas Röfer from the research area Cyber-Physical Systems belonging to the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence led by Professor Rolf Drechsler and Dr. Tim Laue from the University of Bremen. B-Human has been competing in RoboCup competition matches in the Standard Platform League since 2009 and was four times world champion, seven times winner of the German Open, and is now one again European champion.
New: Robots have to be able to recognize the referee’s whistle and the ball is black and white
There were two major alterations to this year’s rules: Kick offs were signalized by the referee’s whistle. The robots had to be able to recognize the whistle signal to know that play had begun: Failing to do so leads to a delay penalty. This rule was already introduced in last year’s final, but now it applies to every match. Second, the ball is now black and white, instead of the previous orange color, and looks like a miniature version of the real thing. This makes it much more difficult for the robots to distinguish the ball from the pitch markings and goal posts, which are also white. While this raised requirement had no detrimental effect on the three top teams B-Human, Nao-Team HTWK and the Nao Devils from Dortmund, it was a major stumbling block for the remaining field. They still have a lot to catch up on before the world championship in Leipzig at the end of June.
About RoboCup
The robot soccer competition goes back to an international initiative designed to promote research in the area of artificial intelligence and robotics. The shared scientific goal is by the year 2050 to develop a team of autonomous humanoid robots that will be able to beat the future reigning human soccer world champion team. In the lead up, different leagues have been formed, each with different research objectives, and the requirements placed on the teams are gradually stepped up.
For more information, please contact:
University of Bremen
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
Research area Cyber-Physical Systems
Dr. Thomas Röfer
Phone: +49 421-218 64200
email: Thomas.Roeferprotect me ?!dfkiprotect me ?!.de
DFKI Corporate Communications Bremen
Phone: +49 421-17845 4180
email: uk-hbprotect me ?!dfkiprotect me ?!.de
www.dfki.de