Roberto Figueiredo is a grasp’s pupil on the College of Aveiro. He’s a member of the Daring Hearts RoboCup crew which competes within the Humanoid KidSize soccer league. He’s at present the native consultant for the Junior Rescue Simulation. We spoke to Roberto about his RoboCup journey, from the junior to the most important leagues, and his expertise of RoboCup occasions.
When was your first RoboCup occasion and which competitors did you participate in?
I began in 2016 within the Junior leagues with my highschool and I took half within the rescue simulation competitors (though I initially joined the on-stage competitors). This primary occasion really occurred in Portugal, and it was much like a workshop. We certified to go to the world cup in rescue simulation, in Leipzig, Germany, and we ended up in second place. That was very nice, and it was my first contact with RoboCup, and with robotics typically. I’d been working with electronics prior to now, however simulation gave me a little bit of an introduction to the extra theoretical elements of robotics, and to AI basically. Rescue simulation makes you consider methods to make the robots unbiased and never manually managed by people.
Roberto’s first RoboCup in 2016, Leipzig, pictured with the Singapore crew celebrating after the finals.
Might you inform us concerning the subsequent RoboCup occasions that you simply took half in?
In 2017 we certified to go to Nagoya, Japan, which was not simply a tremendous RoboCup, however a tremendous journey. That’s one other advantage of robotics, you get to fulfill plenty of new folks in new international locations. We did fairly effectively on this competitors as effectively, I believe we reached fifth place.
After that we went to European RoboCup Junior in Italy. The next yr was my final RoboCup as a junior, which was in Sydney. That was additionally an fascinating occasion and I acquired to talk a bit extra with the majors and perceive how their groups labored. By this level, I had gained extra expertise, and I felt able to get entangled with a significant league RoboCup crew.
There’s a large hole between the junior and main leagues. After I joined my crew (the Daring Hearts), a lot of the crew have been PhDs and I used to be only a second yr bachelor’s pupil so it was fairly onerous to select up all of the information. Nevertheless, if you’re persistent sufficient and you have an interest in, and obsessed with, robotics you’ll get the dangle of it and also you’ll be taught by trial and error.
EuroRoboCup 2022 in Portugal. Roberto (kneeling in photograph) was a part of the organising committee.
When was your first competitors with the crew within the main league?
My first competitors was really final yr, in Thailand. We didn’t carry out as we wish to, nevertheless, there may be way more to RoboCup than simply the competitors – it’s now extra of a scientific and knowledge-sharing occasion, it’s distinctive. Simply this yr, in Bordeaux, we had an issue with our robots. Each time we disconnected the ethernet cable, the robotic simply stopped enjoying, and we couldn’t work out what was taking place. I requested one other crew that was utilizing the identical software program – that they had discovered the issue earlier than and so they informed us find out how to resolve it. I don’t assume you’ll see that in different competitions. Each crew has a joint goal which is making science progress, making friendships, and making different groups higher by sharing their information. That’s actually distinctive.
How did you be a part of the Daring Hearts crew?
I made a decision to do my grasp’s within the UK (on the College of Hertfordshire), to expertise a distinct nation and a distinct model of schooling. After I joined, I knew there was a crew so I used to be already wanting ahead to becoming a member of. After a few years of labor, we lastly acquired to go to a contest as a crew. It’s been a tremendous time and an enormous studying expertise.
What’s your position on the crew?
In our crew, everybody does a little bit of the whole lot. We nonetheless have plenty of issues to unravel – on each the {hardware} and software program aspect. All of us at present are laptop scientists so it’s a bit extra of a battle to work on the {hardware} aspect. So, I do a little bit of the whole lot, each AI and non-AI associated issues. For instance, I’ve performed some 3d modelling for the robots, and I’m at present engaged on the balancing downside. All of us work collectively on the issues which is wonderful since you get to see a little bit of the whole lot and be taught from everybody. Robotics is a really multidisciplinary discipline. You get to find out about every kind of matters: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, machine studying, coding basically.
The Daring Hearts’ qualification video for this yr’s RoboCup competitors
Might you inform us about this yr’s competitors (which came about in Bordeaux)?
This yr we have been much more ready than final yr, once we’d simply come again from COVID, and all of our skilled members had lately left the crew, as a result of ending their PhDs and beginning work. Making a profitable robotic crew is a big integration downside. There are such a lot of items that have to go collectively and work completely for the robots to operate, and if one fails it seems to be like your system isn’t doing something. We acquired strolling working completely this yr, we had imaginative and prescient working effectively too, and we had a secure resolution tree, and we have been in a position to take heed to the controller (which is sort of a referee and passes on details about fouls, sport begin and stops and many others.). Nevertheless, we had some bugs within the resolution tree that made the whole lot crumble and we spent plenty of time attempting to debug it. This occurs to plenty of groups. Nevertheless, you possibly can nonetheless admire the work and progress of what they’ve performed.
RoboCup 2023 in Bordeaux. Roberto (left) with Daring Hearts teammates.
What are the speedy plans for the crew?
We are actually excited about becoming a member of the simulation competitors, which is a part of our league. It takes place within the winter season and we’re planning on becoming a member of to work on our software program. The transition between simulation and {hardware} is sort of onerous. You want an excellent simulation base to have the ability to switch immediately the information to the robotic. We’re engaged on having an excellent simulation so we will switch, a minimum of extra simply, the information learnt in simulation to the robots.
RoboCup is transferring extra in the direction of AI and studying, which we will see within the 3d simulation. The robots be taught plenty of the movement by reinforcement studying, for instance. Within the bodily leagues it’s not as straightforward as we’ve got to switch that to the actual world, the place there may be play within the joints, there’s backlash, there’s play within the 3d elements – there are plenty of variables that aren’t taken into consideration in simulations.
How has being a part of RoboCup impressed your research and analysis?
Each time I’m going to RoboCup I come out excited about what I’m going to do subsequent. I couldn’t be extra impressed. It’s a extremely intense discipline however I adore it. It makes you need to work actually onerous and it makes you obsessed with science. I did my bachelor’s venture associated to RoboCup, I joined a grasp’s course on robotics, I preserve asking my Professors in the event that they need to begin a crew again in Portugal. I’m going to do my grasp’s thesis on robotics, on humanoids. I believe humanoids are a really advanced and fascinating problem. There isn’t a one single resolution.
About Roberto
Roberto Figueiredo is a Portuguese, AI-focused laptop scientist with a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Hertfordshire. He at present pursuing a grasp’s in Robotics and Clever Techniques from the College of Aveiro, and is obsessed with advancing his experience in robotics. He has lengthy been very captivated with robots and AI, being a participant in RoboCup since 2016 within the Rescue Simulation league. He has since turn out to be native consultant for the Rescue League in Portugal and joined a Main crew, Daring Hearts, within the Child Measurement league, some of the difficult in RoboCup Humanoid Soccer.
Lucy Smith
is Managing Editor for AIhub.
AIhub
is a non-profit devoted to connecting the AI neighborhood to the general public by offering free, high-quality data in AI.
AIhub
is a non-profit devoted to connecting the AI neighborhood to the general public by offering free, high-quality data in AI.