Hizook

Well, among other things I spent my Independence Day volunteering at RoboCup 2007. After I finished volunteering, the girlfriend and I wandered around and took a bunch of pictures and videos from the event. We'd like to share them with you. This is a sort of continuation from my previous RoboCup 2007 post. As a side note, I am very proud that the previous post made Engadget! They've had a subsequent post that features a link to the RoboCup 2007 Flickr pool. Here you can find a ton of additional pictures from others (including Dr. Balch, a robotics professor at GA Tech).

First, I'd like to recant my statement about the humanoids soccer competition. While they may be a little slower and more cumbersome, they are a blast to watch during actual competition. Just check out the videos (goal, action, and practicing).

We had the opportunity to watch the 4-legged (Aibo) soccer league. These were a blast to watch, but we were somewhat disappointed with the mechanics... Everyone used purchased 4-legged Aibos rather than custom-designed robots. Does anyone know if this is a requirement, or just done for simplicity? Oh well, they are fun to watch. Check out the pictures and videos.

Overview of the 4-Legged League arena.

Aibo goalie reacting to a shot.

A line of Aibo robots sitting in the prep area. In total, this is probably the largest gathering of the discontinued Aibos I've ever seen! There must be almost 100 of them hanging around. It is quite a site to behold.

Aibo takes a shot and scores a goal. [video]

Aibo takes a shot. It's blocked by the goalie. The follow-up shot hits the goal-post and misses to the right. Close! [video]

Aibo takes a shot that is blocked by the goalie. The attacking Aibo's follow-up pays off with a goal! [video]

Aibo scores a goal against its human controller during practice. [video]

We had the chance to catch some more of the Middle-Size League robots. I still say these are the most entertaining and technically challenging, but that is just my bias. Below is a picture of a team working on their robots in the pits.

In the match we watched, one team was having major technical difficulties. Effectively, only a single one of their robots was functioning properly. However, that didn't stop them -- the 1-robot team managed to score a goal against their opponents! I'd rename that bot "Ronaldo!" [video]

Ultimately even Ronaldo suffered from technical glitches, and the opposition capitalized by scoring several "easy" goals. [video]

I finally got a close-up of some of the Small-Size League robots (that use the overhead camera). It turns out I was incorrect on my previous post -- most of them do use holonomic wheels. I'm amazed at how quickly they move with those wheels. There weren't any games playing while I was there, but I snagged a few pictures. Note the color codes on the top for recognition.

There is also a "Search and Rescue" event (basically, teleoperated all-terrain robots) at RoboCup, though I'm not sure I understand how it is related to soccer. If they're indiscriminately going to add events, I'd like to see robot-sumo and tetsujin (robot exo-skeletons) added. Both are present at RoboGames. Anyway, here are a few Search and Rescue robots, including the team from GA Tech.

Well, I suppose that about sums up my newest pictures and videos. I have also saved the full-res videos on my server for posterity. Again, I'd prefer you be gentle on my bandwidth by viewing the YouTube ones.

• Humanoid Goal
• Humanoid Match
• Humanoid Practice
• Aibo Goal
• Aibo Goal vs Human
• Aibo Goalie Block
• Aibo Goalie Block then Goal
• Mid-Size 1-Robot Team
• Mid-Size Goal