In an exciting final match against the team UT Austin Villa, the Bremen “kickers” finally came out on top in the penalty shoot out. The “best team player” title also went to B-Human.
Hotly contested final decided on penalty shoot out
Just like Germany‘s EM match against Italy, important matches in robotic football often have to be decided by penalty shoot outs. When the whistle blew in the finals of the Standard Platform League, the score was still 0:0. The reigning European champions B-Human and the reigning US champions UT Austin Villa both had good opportunities for scoring goals; but both teams failed to get past each other’s defense to put the ball in the net. And B-Human also had the problem that the newly introduced ball often simply wouldn’t roll straight. Each team managed once to get the ball right up to their opponent’s goal line. However, Austin was saved by the whistle for half time and B-Human’s defense kicked the ball away before it crossed the line. As equal the two teams were during the two halves of the match, the penalty shoot out on the scaled down pitch settled the matter once and for all. The game was over after three shoot-out rounds: the B-Human kickers scored three times, while Austin’s robots failed twice to get the ball past the B-Human’s goalkeeper and their third shot missed the goal entirely.
B-Human has the best team player
There were other events besides the main “Indoor Competition”. These included the mixed-player team competition in which robot kickers from different teams play against each other. It is during this event that the best team player is chosen. B-Human won this title in 2014 and in 2015 it went to the Nao-Team HTWK from Leipzig. This time round, Bremen regained the title by a clear margin from the Leipzig robots. B-Human was also among the eight teams that competed in the “Outdoor Competition”, which is played on artificial turf in a large glass hall. Here, they took second place. In the “Technical competition”, which among other things takes audio communication into account, they came third.
About Team B-Human
The entire team consists of 11 NAO robots, 23 students of the University of Bremen, and Dr. Thomas Röfer from DFKI’s Research Area for Cyber-Physical Systems, which is led by Professor Rolf Drechsler, and Dr. Tim Laue from the University of Bremen. B-Human has been participating in RoboCup competitions in the Standard Platform League since 2009. For the past eight years in a row it was both German and European champion, and it has won the world championship altogether five times. After each world championship, B-Human allows access to its software so that other teams may profit benefit.
About the Standard Platform League
The Standard Platform League owes its name to the fact that all participating teams use the same model of robot, namely the humanoid robot NAO manufactured by Softbank Robotics. The teams differ solely in respect of the software developed for the robots to run on. Thanks to this software, the NAOs are completely autonomous during play. During matches, teams of five robots compete against each other.
New challenges in RoboCup 2016
The new challenges incorporated in this year’s RoboCup European Open in Eindhoven include the ability to recognize the referee’s whistle and the introduction of a black and white soccer ball of the type used in real soccer – albeit in a scaled down version. As the robots themselves, the pitch markings and the goal posts are also colored white it has become significantly more difficult for the robots to identify the ball. Another new feature is that the eight participating teams are selected instead of first taking part in the “Outdoor Competition”.
Images:
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For more information go to:
The official RoboCup 2016 homepage: http://www.robocup2016.org/de/
The Team B-Human homepage: http://www.b-human.de
The homepage of DFKI Research Area Cyber-Physical Systems: http://www.dfki.de/cps
B-Human on Twitter: twitter.com
B-Human on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/teambhuman
DFKI contact person:
Dr. Thomas Röfer
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI)
Research Area Cyber-Physical Systems
Phone: +49 (0)421-218 64200
email: Thomas.Roeferprotect me ?!dfkiprotect me ?!.de
DFKI Comuncations Office:
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI)
Corporate Communications Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421-17845 4111
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www.dfki.de
University of Bremen:
University of Bremen Press Office
Phone: +49 (0)421-218 60150
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www.uni-bremen.de
