Students from Eindhoven University of Technology again became world champion robot football in France on Sunday. The final of the Robocup was a Brabant get-together. The robots of the Tech United student team defeated (6-2) the robots of the Falcons team of chip manufacturer ASML. “When it comes to mechatronics and robotics, this is a very strong region,” says Matthias Briegel, the students’ team leader.
Fontys and VDL also have a team. It is the fourth time in a row that the Eindhoven students have won the World Cup and the seventh world title since their existence. A home game will follow next year, then the World Cup in Eindhoven. “We have to win that too”, believes Briegel, who indicates that the secret was in a different wheel system this year.
The robots have had three wheels for years, but they weren’t as manoeuvrable. “We now have a different drive system, with which we can easily put the three wheels in the direction of travel. We can therefore accelerate much faster with speeds of up to seven meters per second. We are the only team with these wheels, but it was exciting.”
“You can’t intervene if things go wrong.”
The table-high robots play five against five with a real football, in two halves of fifteen minutes, on a field of 18 x 12 meters. They are programmed in advance. As soon as the whistle sounds, they play football completely independently and the people are just spectators. “It is very exciting to sit on the sidelines. You cannot intervene if things go wrong. When we won, that was a great moment.”
The Eindhoven student team consists of about twenty people. “Some have been in the team for years and have now graduated, others are new. We have been working on this all year, earlier this year there was also a European Championship in Portugal. But the fact that there are old-timers does not mean that we are the only one have a head start in knowledge. After the tournament, it is the intention that you share all the knowledge. We will do that tomorrow.”
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The goal of the Robocup is not to win, says Briegel. “The intention is that our knowledge is used to accelerate the development of robots, so that society can benefit from it. At the tournament we have to defeat opponents who are bothering us. We are therefore forced to make our robots as smart as possible. Such a technique that we have now developed for the wheels can also be used for care robots that deliver medicines.”
“Football robots must be able to beat top football players in 2050.”
In 2050, the soccer robots must be able to beat the human soccer world champion. That doesn’t seem feasible when you look at the current technology, but Briegel has every confidence in it. He’s referring to Boston Dynamics that developed a four-legged robotic dog, which is now for sale, and also came out with a robot that walk over difficult terrain.
“I think our soccer robots will look like this in a few years,” says Briegel. “It goes fast. Winning a game of football against top football players should certainly be possible in a quarter of a century.”