T-Team - University of Tuebingen
(Vice world champion of RoboCup-98 in Paris)
Information about RoboCup
The Robot World Cup Initiative
(RoboCup) is an attempt to foster AI and intelligent robotics research
by providing a standard problem where a wide range of technologies can
be integrated and examined. For this purpose, RoboCup chose to use the
soccer game, and organize the RoboCup: The Robot World Cup Soccer Games
and Conferences. In order for a robot team to actually perform a soccer
game, various technologies must be incorporated including: design principles
of autonomous agents, multi-agent collaboration, strategy acquisition,
real-time reasoning, robotics, and sensor-fusion. RoboCup is a task for
a team of multiple fast-moving robots in a dynamic environment. The RoboCup
also offers a software platform for research on the software aspects of
RoboCup. (excerpt from the official RoboCup site)
T-Team, University of Tuebingen
The T-Team is part of the Wilhelm
Schickard Institute for Computer Science (WSI), Dept.
of Computer Architecture (Prof. Dr. A. Zell) at the University of Tuebingen,
Germany.
The team members are:
with significant contributions by
-
Peter Biber
-
Tobias Frech
-
Sven Fleck
Robot Hardware
Currently, we are using five modified Pioneers
with our own extensions, and a Pioneer AT as Goalkeeper. The extensions
comprise:
-
custom developed PC-based color vision system capable of tracking the ball
with 25 fps
-
pneumatic kicker for all field players,
-
new micro controller, based on the Motorola MC68332 (in Paris only used
in the Goalie)
-
radio ethernet of ARtem, Inc., Ulm.
RoboCup-98 in Paris
Following is a short report of the middle size competition (robots up to
50 cm diameter) of the RoboCup-98 in Paris, at the Cité des Sciences
(science museum) in Paris, from 2.-9. July,.1998.
Participating Teams
| Group A |
Group B |
Group C |
Group D |
| Portugal (Portugal) |
CS Freiburg (Germany) |
GMD (Germany) |
Tübingen (Germany) |
| Osaka (Japan) |
Nara (Japan) |
Uttori United (Japan) |
RMIT, Melb. (Australia) |
| Ullanta/USC (USA) |
USC Dream T. (USA) |
Yale (USA) |
TU Munic (Germany) |
| Ulm Sparrows (Germ.) |
Real MagiCol (F./Col.) |
LAP (France) |
Team Italia (Italy) |
Team Descriptions
Group A
-
Portugal (IsocRob, P. Aparicio, R. Ventura, P. Lima, C. Pinto-Ferreira):
custom construction, wooden chassis, onboard-PC with AMD K6 (200 MHz, 16
MB RAM, hard drive), Phillips XC731/340 video camera with PCI frame grabber,
aktive IR beacons, 4x4 contact sensors, sound sensor, 6 IR distance sensors,
differential drive, 2 Mbps radio ethernet: WaveCell (Aaron Tech.), Linux
OS.
-
Osaka: 2 custom built robots covered with black cloth with Sony
EV10 pan/tilt vision camera, 3 small robots based on a large RC car
(Nikkoh Black beast) with PC based single board computer.
-
Ullanta (Barry Werger): 2 Pioneer AT, 2 Pioneer1, 1 B12 of Newton
Labs (Goalie); all Pioneers with raised sonar ring (2 above each
other, but only the lower functional), all with
-
Newton Lab vision system, the two Pioneer ATs with Sony EV10 pan/tilt
vision camera.
-
Ulm Sparrows (G. Kraetzschmar, S. Enderle et al.): 3 Pioneer1 with
vertical air pressure tanks (sponsored by Festo, Inc.), each with
onboard-PC based on PC-104 and frame grabber, a simple tracked vehicle
which moved in front of the goal line.
Group B
-
CS Freiburg, Deutschland (J.-S. Gutmann, W. Hatzack, I. Herrmann,
B. Nebel, F. Rittinger, A. Topor, T. Weigel, B. Welsch): 5 Pioneer1 with
Sick PLS200 laser scanner, Newton Lab vision system, WaveLan radio ethernet,
Libretto notebook, kick mechanism with solenoids and Märklin metal
construction set, sideway ball guidance with spring mounted fingers, goalkeeper
has laser scanner, vision system and kicker mounted sideways.
-
Nara Institute, Japan: 5 small robots based on RC car (Nikkoh Black
beast), Sony EVI D30 pan-tilt camera und PCMCIA video capture card (IBM
Smart Capture Card II), single board computer, tactile sensors made from
the keys of a keyboard
-
USC Dream Team, USA: 5 small robots based on an RC car (Nikkoh
Black beast), each with 2 Connectix Color QuickCamVC with wide angle lens
(135 degrees), one camera facing front, one facing back, AMD K6 single
board computer
-
Real MagiCol, France/Columbia: 5 robots based on Pioneer1 platform.
Group C
-
GMD, Germany (A. Kuth, A. Bredenfeld, H. Guenther, H.U. Kobialka,
B. Klaassen, U. Licht, K.L. Paap, P.G. Ploeger, H. Streich, J. Vollmer,
J. Wilberg, R. Worst, T. Christaller): 8 custom designed robots with aluminium
chassis with differential drive, onboard-PC (Libretto), WaveLan radio ethernet,
Newton Lab vision system for ball tracking, 4 color sensors to determine
the color of surrounding objects, 16 grey scale sensors, contact sensors,
four level control architecture: 1. server PC, 2. robot PC, 3. master microcontroller
(C167) for low-level decisions, 4. 2 save microcontrollers (C167) , one
for motor, odometry, color recognition, bumper, line-detector, the second
for distance and grey level sensor.
-
Uttori United, Japan: 3 big robots (50kg) with omni-directional
drive mechanism with 4 Stanford wheels, camera, kick-mechanism and additional
strong air fans, with could move the ball remotely at a distance of 1-1.5m.
-
Yale, USA: 5 Nomad SuperScout robots with onboard single-board computer
and color camera, usually not all of them were able to compete.
-
LAP, Frankreich: no functional robots, could not seriously take
part in the competition.
Group D
-
Tübingen, Germany (T-Team A. Zell, M. Plagge, B. Diebold, D.
Jung, J. Ihlenburg, Richard Günther, Keyan Zahedi): 4 Pioneer1 robots
with Pentium200 resp. AMD K6 onboard-PCs, 64 MB RAM (incl. RAMDisk) and
Sony pan/tilt camera (pan/tilt feature not used), custom pneumatic kick
mechanism, concave ball guidance with PU foam with small ball guiding springs
on front sides, 2 Mb/s ARtem radio ethernet, one Pioneer AT robot with
Newton Lab vision system as goalkeeper, Sick LMS200 laser scanner on goalkeeper
had to be removed because of severe radio modem data transmission problems.
-
RMIT Raiders, Australia: 5 round robots with shiny black plastic
chassis with low cost color camera, had sometimes problems with object
recognition and/or steering, frequently moved erratically.
-
TU München, Deutschland: (M. Klupsch, T. Bandlow, M. Grimme,
I. Kellerer, M. Lückenhaus, F. Schwarzer, C. Zierl): 5 Pioneer1 robots
with Lanner Electronics EM500 single-board computer (Pentium 200 MHz MMX,
64MB RAM, onboard ethernet, Videologic PCI video capture card) and off-board
master PC, linked with WaveCell wireless ethernet LAN. Complex software
architecture with sensor analysis modules, planning modules and 3D world
representation. Vision system based on commercialized HALCON system (formally
called Horus).
-
Team Italia (ART Azzurra Robot Team, D. Nardi, G. Clemente, E. Pagello):
5 Pioneer1 robots with onboard-PC, BT848 based PCI-Framegrabber, radio
ethernet, digital compass, kicker with 2 kicking disks and 2 solenoids.
Saphira software system..
Results of the preliminary rounds
| Group A |
Portugal |
Osaka |
Ullanta |
Ulm Sparrows |
Points |
| Portugal, P |
|
0:0 |
0:0 |
1:1 |
3 |
| Osaka, Japan |
0:0 |
|
0:0 |
4:1 |
5 |
| Ullanta, USA |
0:0 |
0:0 |
|
0:0 |
3 |
| Ulm Sparrows |
1:1 |
1:4 |
0:0 |
|
2 |
| Group B |
CS Freiburg |
Nara, Japan |
USC Dream T. |
Real Magic |
Points |
| CS Freiburg, D |
|
1:1 (1:1) |
1:0 |
3:0 |
7 |
| Nara, Japan |
1:1 (1:1) |
|
1:1 |
2:0 |
5 |
| USC Dream T. |
0:1 |
1:1 |
|
2:1 (W) |
4 |
| Real Magic, F |
0:3 |
0:2 |
1:2 (W) |
|
0 |
| Group C |
GMD |
Uttori United |
Yale |
LAP, France |
Points |
| GMD |
|
0:5 |
0:1 |
3:1 |
3 |
| Uttori United |
5:0 |
|
1:0 |
2:0 |
9 |
| Yale |
1:0 |
0:1 |
|
2:0 (W) |
6 |
| LAP, France |
1:3 |
0:2 |
0:2 (W) |
|
0 |
| Group D |
Tübingen |
RMIT Raiders |
TU München |
Team Italia |
Points |
| Tübingen |
|
2:0 |
0:0 |
0:0 |
5 |
| RMIT Raiders |
0:2 |
|
2:1 |
0:0 |
1 |
| TU München |
0:0 |
2:1 |
|
0:1 (0:0) |
4 |
| Team Italia |
0:0 |
0:0 |
1:0 (0:0) |
|
5 |
Results of Final round
| Teams |
Viertelfinale |
Halbfinale |
Finale |
Sieger |
| A1 |
Osaka |
|
|
3.Platz: Osaka |
| B2 |
Nara |
Osaka |
|
2. Platz: Tübing. |
| B1 |
CS Freiburg |
|
Freiburg 3:0 |
|
| C2 |
Yale |
Freiburg |
|
|
| C1 |
Uttori |
|
|
Freiburg 2:0 |
| D2 |
ART, Italien |
Uttori |
|
|
| D1 |
Tübingen |
|
Tübing. 1:0 (0:0) |
|
| A2 |
Portugal |
Tübing. 1:0 (0:0) |
|
|
Quarter final Tuebingen vs. Portugal, 7 July, '98,
a.m.
Because of massive network problems (persistant jamming of radio ethernet
by a different team) all field players of Tuebingen could not be started
remotely and stood there fully paralyzed. Fortunately, the Portugese players
were not able to score a goal in this time. In the second half all robots
of Tuebingen were started locally. By the missing communication the team
behavior of the robots was severely impaird, so the regular play ended
0:0.
During penalty shooting Tuebingen had problems controlling the goalkeeper
robot (Pioneer AT with custom developed controller board), fortunately
the most dangerous shot of Portugal was kept by a late, but very fast acceleration
of the goalkeeper. The Portugese goalkeeper also held the Tuebingen shots.
Thus, also the penalty shooting (5 shots on each side) ended without goals.
In the following Golden Goal (start from the middle of the opponent's
half, driving around the ball and shot into the goal) the Portugese did
not bring the ball into the proper half, the Tuebingen robot drove around
the ball and shot it rather quickly into the portugese goal.
Semi final Tuebingen vs. Uttori, 7 July, '98 p.m.
The opponent Uttori (2 japanese universities plus Riken research institute)
possessed three very large and heavy (50kg) custom built robots, which
had an omni-directional drive mechanism and a mechanism to remotely moving
the ball with an air blower. In the earlier games this together withthe
strength of the robots was the reason for the win streak of Uttori, as
they could push their opponents together with the ball over the field into
the goal.
The Tuebingen field players could not match the weight and strength
of these robots, but the Pioneer AT goalkeeper was strong enough to block
the Uttori robot. One of the big Uttori robots nearly crushed him in the
attempt to push him with the ball into the goal, but in this attempt nearly
fell on its side itself - a very scary moment! Thus the regular play also
ended 0:0.
At the 5 penalty goals of Uttori the Tuebingen goal keeper, which because
of the removal of its Sick laser scanner and complete reprogramming had
been a problem in the earlier games, held all shots with very accurate
and swift movements. Of the following penalty shots of Tuebingen the third
shot could be placed in the goal thanks to our pneumatic kicker. So Tuebingen
reached the final.
Final Tuebingen vs. Freiburg, 8 July, '98 p.m.
This final of two german teams of the same state of Baden-Württemberg
was especially interesting, because both teams used the same robot platform
Pioneer1. Whereas Freiburg used a Sick laser scanner on each robot for
global positioning and a Newton Lab vision system for detection and tracking
of the ball, Tuebingen relied on its custom developed PC based vision system
for ball tracking and relative positioning and on its more powerful pneumatic
kicking devices. The laser scanner of the goalkeeper of Tuebingen could
not be used because of problems of radio interference of its radio modem,
thus Tuebingen had to develop a sonar based goalkeeper position control,
which only worked in the final rounds satisfactorily.
Freiburg had shown its advantage in an earlier test match in Ulm, and
also was superior in the final. After an early shot by Tuebingen towards
the goal which was kept by the goalkeeper of Freiburg the play was concentrated
in the half side of Tuebingen. A first attack by Freiburg was stopped by
the goalkeeper of Tuebingen, in this interception, however, it moved too
far away from its optimal position at the goal line and could not see the
ball in the right half of the game area. After a turmoil on the right side
an attacker of Freiburg could take the ball and without opposition of Tuebingen's
goalkeeper shoot the ball into the goal from a narrow angle. 1:0 for Freiburg
at half time.
In the second half again an attack by Tuebingen was countered by Freiburg,
a following attack of Freiburg ended at the goalkeeper of Tuebingen. In
this situation as well it moved too far from its goal and because of its
lack of a kicking device, the ball stayed in dangerous distance to the
goal. With its better positioning and its ball handling mechanism an attacker
of Freiburg come from the left and pushed the ball with an elegant movement
around the goalkeeper into the goal of Tuebingen: Final result 2:0 for
Freiburg.
Despite the final loss of Tuebingen all participants were pleased by
the relatively good play of all robots, which in comparison to last year's
final showed a much more active and intelligent behaviour.
Also the film teams and the spectators on the crowded stands in the
Cité des Sciences in Paris were satisfied. Most teams expect to
compete again at RoboCup-99 in Stockholm during the IJCAI conference. Before,
there will be a rematch of the german middle size teams during the VISION
fair from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 1998 at Stuttgart, Germany.
-Andreas Zell
Images
(Images in original size can be loaded by clicking on the reduced images)
Pioneer AT robots von Ullanta/USC (USA) |
Robots of GMD, Bonn (Germany) |
Pioneer1 Robots of Uni Freiburg (D) |
Robots of Nara Inst. of Techn. (Japan) |
Tuebingen vs. Azzurro Robot Team (Italy) |
.. same game (preliminar round) |
Tuebinger attack (without success) in the RoboCup-98 final against
Freiburg |
The two top teams after the final,
Freiburg (left) and Tübingen (right) |
Sponsors of the T-Team
Links
Last Modification: Thursday, 30-Jul-1998 09:07:41 MST
This page is mirrored from www-ra.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de.