Middle-dimension robots compete in Eindhoven, Netherlands in 2013.
From 2019 to 2022, I had the privilege of serving as president of the RoboCup Federation.
RoboCup is an annual worldwide aggressive tournament that merges visionary serious about how AI and robotics will commerce the enviornment with shining robotic build. Individuals exhaust months solving various technical considerations to enable their robots to autonomously play soccer, stop family chores, or sign misfortune victims. And their efforts are in flip enabling main advances in a unfold of fields, including machine finding out, multiagent systems, and human-robotic interplay.
Dr Hiroaki Kitano, Japanese artificial intelligence researcher, maintaining two participants of his tiny robotic football team.Peter Menzel/Science Provide
RoboCup’s
long-established purpose, as outlined by founding president Hiroaki Kitano, used to be to enable a team of completely self sustaining humanoid robots to beat the correct human soccer team on this planet on an true, exterior field by the year 2050. For the explanation that first RoboCup opponents in 1997 which featured three leagues—diminutive-dimension wheeled robots, center-dimension wheeled robots, and simulation—the tournament has expanded to encompass humanoid robotic soccer leagues, along with to varied leagues devoted to robots with extra instantaneous practicality. The next RoboCup tournament takes predicament in July in Bordeaux, France, where 2,500 folk (and 2,000 robots) from forty five countries are expected to compete.
The Initiating
A history of RoboCup from 1997-2011, by Peter Stone and Manuela Veloso.www.youtube.com
The main RoboCup, which I attended as a student, used to be held in 1997 in a diminutive point out room on the World Joint Convention on AI (IJCAI) in Nagoya, Japan. The level of opponents used to be, by this day’s standards, now not very excessive. Alternatively, it’s famous to take note that many “roboticists” encourage then didn’t work with staunch robots. RoboCup used to be extraordinary all the most sensible likely method thru its early years in that it compelled of us to fabricate total, integrated working systems that would possibly well sense, opt, and act.
Small-Size League
Small-dimension robots compete at RoboCup 2017 in Nagoya, Japan.
Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Photos
There had been many technical advances for the explanation that first teams of diminutive-dimension robots (proven right here with a golf ball) competed in RoboCup in 1997.
Philippe Plailly/Science Provide
Over time, RoboCup has seen tall enhancements within the level of play, continuously following a sample of 1 team making a discovery and dominating the opponents for a year or two and then being supplanted by one other. Shall we embrace, within the Small-Size League, in which the robots utilize a golf ball and exterior perception and computing, Group FU-Warring parties from Freie Universität Berlin and the Cornell RoboCup team launched some enhancements in 1999. They each and each launched devices to automatically “kick” the ball, as an different of simply driving into it. The next year, Cornell began controlling the ball the usage of a instrument that spins it backward toward the robotic to “dribble.” As the first teams to approach encourage up with these suggestions, they’d a good relief, nevertheless varied teams soon adopted race neatly with.
The Small-Size League remaining between TIGERs Mannheim and ER-Force at RoboCup 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Authorized Platform League
Austin Villa, UT Austin’s RoboCup team, describing the RoboCup Authorized Platform League in 2008.
While many RoboCup leagues encompass a hardware build part, some teams settle on to focal point extra on utility. Within the
Authorized Platform League, every team is supplied with linked robots, and thus the correct aggregate of algorithms and utility engineering wins. The main customary platform for RoboCup used to be the Aibo, a diminutive robotic dog made by Sony. One method or the opposite, though, the purpose of RoboCup is to build human-level performance on a bipedal robotic, and so the Authorized Platform League now makes utilize of a diminutive humanoid robotic known as Nao, made by SoftBank. Rugged and capable, Nao is in a predicament to tumble over and like a flash fetch up again, a severe capability for soccer-taking part in folk and robots alike.
The Authorized Platform League remaining between HTWK Robots and B-Human at RoboCup 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Middle-Size League
The Middle-Size League remaining between Tech United and the Falcons at RoboCup 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand.
The
Middle-Size League makes utilize of a stout-dimension soccer ball and onboard perception on waist-excessive wheeled robots. Over time, it has showcased an endless amount of growth toward human-stride, human-scale soccer. In most current competitions, the robots have moved briskly around a broad field, autonomously rising offensive and defensive suggestions and coordinating passes and shots on purpose. The customary center-dimension robotic has the capability of a loyal main-college human, even supposing on this league the robots don’t have to misfortune about legs. And in some systems, the center-dimension robots have advantages over human avid gamers—the robots have omnidirectional sensing, wireless verbal exchange, and the capability to persistently predicament very correct shots due to a mechanical ball-launching system.
Well-known inclinations had been made in Middle-Size League robots over time, as proven by these differences within the hardware between 1998 and 2013.
Left: Volker Steger/Science Provide; Gorgeous: Sylvia Lederer/Xinhua/Redux
Humanoid League
Small legged robots compete within the Kidsize Humanoid League at RoboCup 2017 in Nagoya, Japan.
Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Photos
The RoboCup Humanoid League, launched in 2002, is severe to meeting our function of fielding a team of highly knowledgeable humanoid robots by 2050. Bipedal robots are an ongoing affirm, namely when these robots have to have interplay with stout-dimension soccer balls, balancing on one leg to kick with the assorted. The humanoids will have to have humanlike proportions and sensor configurations equivalent to human perception—which method, among varied things, no omnidirectional sensing.
A humanoid robotic of the younger of us dimension league attempts a put all the most sensible likely method thru the Robocup 2006 football world championships on the Congress Centre on June 14, 2006 in Bremen.
Malte Christians/Bongarts/Getty Photos
RoboCup 2022 Humanoid AdultSize Soccer Final: NimbRo (Germany) vs. HERoEHS (Korea)
The Adult-Size Humanoid League remaining between NimbRo and the HERoEHS at RoboCup 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Simulation
The RoboCup Simulation League makes utilize of virtual versions of the Authorized Platform League humanoid robots.
RoboCup Federation
Even within the Authorized Platform League, hardware shall be frustrating, so the RoboCup Simulation League permits teams to work completely in utility. This permits extra fleet growth the usage of reducing-edge ways. My possess team, UT Austin Villa, began the usage of hierarchical machine finding out to originate abilities reminiscent of walking and kicking within the Simulation League in 2014, which allowed us to dominate the opponents. However in 2022, FC Portugal and Magma Offenburg had been in a predicament to surpass us with deep reinforcement finding out suggestions.
Other Leagues
A cell manipulation robotic autonomously interacts with a toaster oven at RoboCup@Home 2016 in Leipzig.
Robocup Federation
While soccer is the final purpose of Robocup, and it motivates study on main issues reminiscent of robotic imaginative and prescient and mobility, it’s going to be hard to examine the practicality in a sport. Other RoboCup leagues thus focal point on extra instantaneous functions. RoboCup@Home functions robots for home environments, RoboCup Rescue is for search-and-rescue robots for misfortune response, and RoboCup@Work develops robots for industry and logistics initiatives.
A misfortune response robotic traverses a nerve-racking mobility direction as section of RoboCup Rescue [left] whereas an industrial cell manipulator locations a section all the most sensible likely method thru RoboCup@Work [right] at RoboCup 2019 in Sydney.
Robocup Federation (2)
Robots vs. Humans
European RoboCup 2022 Middle-Size winning team Tech United performs an exhibition sport against authentic females’s team Vitória SC in Guimarães, Portugal. The females deliberately tied against the robots to total the game in penalties.
At the conclusion of a RoboCup tournament, there used to be a tradition since 2011 of the trustees of the RoboCup Federation taking part in a friendly sport against the winning team of the Middle-Size League. In most current years, the center-dimension robots have develop into surprisingly aggressive, in a predicament to withhold possession of the ball, dribble all the most sensible likely method thru the opposing team, and string together passes all the most sensible likely method thru the field. The robots couldn’t be ready to take care of the enviornment champions quite but, nevertheless the growth has been spectacular—in 2022, Tech United Eindhoven performed a friendly match against a Portuguese authentic females’s team, Vitória SC, and the robots managed to ranking a few targets (after the females took it easy on them).
RoboCup’s Legacy
The creator with participants of the Austin Villa RoboCup team.
Peter Stone
As in contrast with 25 years within the past, there are now many extra robotics competitions to settle on between, and functions of AI and robotics are great extra unusual. RoboCup inspired heaps of the assorted competitions, and it stays the supreme such tournament. Our community is determined to withhold pushing the converse of the art. The tournament attracts teams from study labs specializing in mechanical engineering, scientific robotics, human-robotic interplay, finding out from demonstration, and heaps of various fields, and there’s no better manner to coach recent students than to lend a hand them to immerse themselves in RoboCup.
The importance of RoboCup shall be measured past the opponents itself. One in all the most notable successes, stemming from the early years of the opponents, used to be the technology spun off from the diminutive-dimension league to originate the root of Kiva Systems. Kiva’s robotic used to be influenced by that of Cornell’s RoboCup team, led by Raffaello D’Andrea. After helming his team to Small-Size League victories in 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003 , D’Andrea went on to cofound Kiva Systems. The firm, which developed warehouse robots that moved cupboards of products, used to be acquired by Amazon in 2012 for US $775 million to develop into the core of Amazon’s warehouse robotics program.
Future of RoboCup
At this point, you might possibly be questioning what the possibilities are for reaching RoboCup’s founding purpose—enabling a team of self sustaining humanoid robots to beat the enviornment’s supreme human team at a sport of soccer on an true, exterior field by the year 2050. Will soccer race the manner of chess, checkers, poker, Gran Turismo, “Jeopardy!”, and varied human endeavors and be conquered by AI? Or will the necessities for staunch-world perception and humanlike stride and agility preserve soccer out of reach for robots? This inquire stays a offer of uncertainty and debate all over the RoboCup community. Though 27 years is a primarily very prolonged time in technological phrases, bodily automation tends to be vastly extra difficult and take for great longer than purely utility-oriented initiatives stop.
One method or the opposite, if the community is going to build its targets, we can have to address two challenges: building hardware that can transfer as like a flash and simply as of us stop, and creating utility that can outsmart the correct human avid gamers in staunch time. Some experts point out existing converse of the art humanoid robots as evidence that sufficiently capable hardware is already available. As spectacular as they’re, nonetheless, I don’t think these robots can match the capabilities of the most knowledgeable human athletes ethical but. I haven’t seen any evidence that even the correct humanoid robots this day can dribble a soccer ball and deftly commerce instructions at excessive stride within the manner that a authentic soccer player can—namely when factoring within the requirement that for authentic avid gamers to conform to fetch on the field with robots, the robots will have to be now not too heavy or famous: They’re going to have to be each and each knowledgeable and eminently receive.
No subject how it looks, there is now not this kind of thing as a inquire in my mind that RoboCup is an enduring enormous affirm for AI and robotics, along with to a tall practising ground for the following generation of roboticists. The RoboCup community is thriving, generating recent suggestions and recent engineers and scientists. I’ve been proud to have led the RoboCup group, and watch forward to seeing where it’s going to race from right here.
发布者：Dr.Durant，转转请注明出处：https://robotalks.cn/will-robots-triumph-over-world-cup-winners-by-2050/
