Interview with Roberto Figueiredo: the RoboCup expertise

Roberto Figueiredo is a grasp’s scholar on the College of Aveiro. He’s a member of the Daring Hearts RoboCup staff which competes within the Humanoid KidSize soccer league. He’s at the moment the native consultant for the Junior Rescue Simulation. We spoke to Roberto about his RoboCup journey, from the junior to the key 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 truly 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 usually. I’d been working with electronics previously, however simulation gave me a little bit of an introduction to the extra theoretical points of robotics, and to AI normally. 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 staff celebrating after the finals.

May you inform us concerning the subsequent RoboCup occasions that you just 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 satisfy a variety of new folks in new international locations. We did fairly nicely on this competitors as nicely, I believe we reached fifth place.

After that we went to European RoboCup Junior in Italy. The next 12 months was my final RoboCup as a junior, which was in Sydney. That was additionally an attention-grabbing occasion and I received 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 serious league RoboCup staff.

There’s a massive hole between the junior and main leagues. After I joined my staff (the Daring Hearts), many of the staff have been PhDs and I used to be only a second 12 months bachelor’s scholar so it was fairly laborious to choose up all of the information. Nevertheless, in case you are persistent sufficient and you have an interest in, and enthusiastic about, robotics you’ll get the cling of it and also you’ll study 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 staff within the main league?

My first competitors was truly final 12 months, in Thailand. We didn’t carry out as we wish to, nonetheless, there may be far more to RoboCup than simply the competitors – it’s now extra of a scientific and knowledge-sharing occasion, it’s distinctive. Simply this 12 months, in Bordeaux, we had an issue with our robots. Each time we disconnected the ethernet cable, the robotic simply stopped taking part in, and we couldn’t work out what was occurring. I requested one other staff that was utilizing the identical software program – that they had found out the issue earlier than and so they instructed us resolve it. I don’t assume you’ll see that in different competitions. Each staff 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 part of the Daring Hearts staff?

I made a decision to do my grasp’s within the UK (on the College of Hertfordshire), to expertise a special nation and a special model of training. After I joined, I knew there was a staff so I used to be already trying ahead to becoming a member of. After a few years of labor, we lastly received to go to a contest as a staff. It’s been a tremendous time and an enormous studying expertise.

What’s your function on the staff?

In our staff, everybody does a little bit of all the pieces. We nonetheless have a variety of issues to unravel – on each the {hardware} and software program facet. All of us at the moment are pc scientists so it’s a bit extra of a wrestle to work on the {hardware} facet. So, I do a little bit of all the pieces, each AI and non-AI associated issues. For instance, I’ve completed some 3d modelling for the robots, and I’m at the moment engaged on the balancing drawback. All of us work collectively on the issues which is superb since you get to see a little bit of all the pieces and study from everybody. Robotics is a really multidisciplinary subject. You get to find out about all types of matters: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, machine studying, coding normally.

The Daring Hearts’ qualification video for this 12 months’s RoboCup competitors

May you inform us about this 12 months’s competitors (which passed off in Bordeaux)?

This 12 months we have been much more ready than final 12 months, after we’d simply come again from COVID, and all of our skilled members had lately left the staff, on account of ending their PhDs and beginning work. Making a profitable robotic staff is a big integration drawback. 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 appears to be like like your system isn’t doing something. We received strolling working completely this 12 months, we had imaginative and prescient working nicely 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, recreation begin and stops and so forth.). Nevertheless, we had some bugs within the resolution tree that made all the pieces disintegrate and we spent a variety of time attempting to debug it. This occurs to a variety of groups. Nevertheless, you may nonetheless respect the work and progress of what they’ve completed.

RoboCup 2023 in Bordeaux. Roberto (left) with Daring Hearts teammates.

What are the rapid plans for the staff?

We at the moment are eager 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 laborious. You want a superb simulation base to have the ability to switch instantly the information to the robotic. We’re engaged on having an excellent simulation so we will switch, no less than 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 study a variety of the movement by means of reinforcement studying, for instance. Within the bodily leagues it’s not as straightforward as we’ve to switch that to the true world, the place there may be play within the joints, there’s backlash, there’s play within the 3d components – there are a variety of variables that aren’t taken under consideration in simulations.

How has being a part of RoboCup impressed your research and analysis?

Each time I am going to RoboCup I come out eager about what I’m going to do subsequent. I couldn’t be extra impressed. It’s a extremely intense subject however I like it. It makes you wish to work actually laborious and it makes you enthusiastic about science. I did my bachelor’s mission associated to RoboCup, I joined a grasp’s course on robotics, I maintain asking my Professors in the event that they wish to begin a staff again in Portugal. I’m going to do my grasp’s thesis on robotics, on humanoids. I believe humanoids are a really advanced and attention-grabbing problem. There is no such thing as a one single answer.

About Roberto

Roberto Figueiredo is a Portuguese, AI-focused pc scientist with a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Hertfordshire. He at the moment pursuing a grasp’s in Robotics and Clever Techniques from the College of Aveiro, and is enthusiastic about advancing his experience in robotics. He has lengthy been very keen about robots and AI, being a participant in RoboCup since 2016 within the Rescue Simulation league. He has since grow to be native consultant for the Rescue League in Portugal and joined a Main staff, Daring Hearts, within the Child Measurement league, one of the difficult in RoboCup Humanoid Soccer.