Research on Robot Soccer and what PSU can do : Research on Robot Soccer and what PSU can do
The perceptions : The perceptions Three perceptions: see, hear and sense_body.
All related to one system of perception.
Representation of perceptions:
(see 1 (ball …) …)
Visual Perception : Visual Perception see.
List of objects recognized:
type,
direction,
distance,
speed,
number.
Lines, gates, boundaries, ball.
sense_body : sense_body Force detection
Energy available. Principal actions:
dash,
kick,
turn
say. Actions
Slide5 :
Role level : Determines the roles of each robot.
(defender, attacker and goal keeper)
Action level : Selects actions of each robot.
(shooting, blocking, dribbling, etc)
Behavior level : Move and obstacle avoidance
Execution level : Motor control Role level Variants of Control structure
Classification of Robot Soccer Systems : Vision-based system
Remote brainless system
Brain-on-board system
Robot-based system
Selection guidelines
Developer’s interests
Computational capabilities of host computer and vision system
Capabilities of the robots
Cost The system can be classified using the location of intelligence Classification of Robot Soccer Systems
Remote-Brainless System : Centralized system
Simple and inexpensive Easy to develop the robot
No local sensors.
Fast computing time
and sampling time
Easy to debug and upgrade the program Remote-Brainless System High cost vision system and host computer A type of vision-based system
Intelligent part is implemented in the host computer.
Remote-Brainless System : Robots
The robots consist of driving mechanism, communication part, and computational part for velocity and for processing the data received from a host computer
Host computer
All the calculations for vision data processing, strategies, position control of robots and so on, are done in the host computer which controls robots like radio -controlled car Remote-Brainless System
Brain-on-board system : Brain-on-board system Intermediate level between the centralized and the distributed systems / between the remote-brainless and the robot based systems.
Robots can use local sensors to move to the goal and to avoid the opponent.
Can decompose the system into high level (host computer)
and low level (robot systems). Easy to make
the system in modular form A type of vision-based system
Intelligence is partially implemented in the host computer and robots.
Brain-on-board system : Robots
The robots have functions such as velocity control, position control, obstacle avoidance, etc.
Host computer
The host computer processes vision data and calculates next behaviors of robots according to strategies and sends commands to the robots using RF modem. Brain-on-board system
Robot-based system : Robot-based system Suitable when the large number of agents exist
Complex and expensive
Need communication among robots Distributed system
Intelligent part is implemented in the robots.
Robot-based system : Robots
The robots decide their own behavior autonomously using the received vision data, own sensor data and strategies.
Host computer
The host computer processes only vision data
can be considered as a kind of sensor. Robot-based system
Main PC : Main PC Serial Port
Select the serial communication port
Home Goal
Select the home side on the screen
Find Objects
Check the box of which you like to find on the field
Initial Position: tell the vision system the initial position
of each object
E.g.) for the ball
i) turn on the radio button of ‘Ball’
ii) place the mouse on the ball and press the left button
Repeat above procedure for another object
EXAMPLE
Main PC : Main PC Select Situation
The situation in which the game is about to start
Command
Click ‘Ready’: the vision system starts finding the objects
on the field
Click ‘Start’ : the vision system starts sending commands
to the robots
Click ‘Stop’ : the vision system stops finding objects
and sending commands EXAMPLE
Communication (Infra-red) : Communication (Infra-red) Infra-red Communication
Four transmitters are used to cover the whole field EXAMPLE
Communication : Communication Both teams share the same transmitter via a mediator
Communication Packet
Three 0xFFs: the start of a packet
0x0F (0xF0): Team A (Team B)
VLi , VRi: left and right wheel velocity of robot i
0xAA: end of velocity data of each robot EXAMPLE
Tough, practical problems to be solved : Tough, practical problems to be solved Real-Time image processing
Sensor fusion (sonar, touch, vision, light, other).
Motors, batteries.
Sophisticated control strategies
Radio communication
Agent communication
Problems : Problems Players do not know absolute locations.
Points of reference are: boundaries, lines and gates.
Conflicts of players
Limited visibility
Limited communication
Software : Software Real-Time Problem, rule-based, agent behavior.
Dynamic planning and execution of plans in real-time.
Cooperation and competition.
No precise information
Non-deterministic behavior:
results of actions are uncertain.
Software potentials (cont.) : Software potentials (cont.) Voice comunication of players
Various players have different rules and behaviors, different strategies and implementations - rule-based, neural nets, fuzzy logic, etc.
multi-agents: competition versus collaboration.
on-line versus off-line,
individual versus group behaviors.
FIRA and the ECE 478/ECE 479 class at PSU : FIRA and the ECE 478/ECE 479 class at PSU Class project and in future Capstone Project (if a company will sponsor)
High-School project
Portland Cyber Theatre
Experience in Visual C++, Basic, Lisp and Prolog programming.
A lot of fun.
Travel to Japan or Korea?
Does PSU team has a chance? : Does PSU team has a chance? 1. Professor Kim from KAIST in Korea invited us to create a new league of walking robots
2. We have experience with walking robots
3. We will try to propose new competition ideas and have a leverage of knowing them earlier.
Besides, our students are smart…..? Let us look to our robots…...
What we propose : What we propose Robot soccer system
Intelligent control system
Multi-agent system
Composition of robot soccer system
Mobile robots
Host computer
Vision system
Communication module
Sports commentator Walking robots
Team One : Team One Complex robots
8 to 12 servos
Our walking quadrupeds and hexapods : Our walking quadrupeds and hexapods Collaborations:
ATR, Japan
Technical University of Warsaw, Poland
Technical University of Gliwice, Poland
KAIST, Korea Multi-national team
Quadruped : Quadruped
Basic Radio-Controlled Spider Hexapod with Gripper : Basic Radio-Controlled Spider Hexapod with Gripper
Spider with a camera : Spider with a camera
New soccer-specialized hexapod : New soccer-specialized hexapod
Hexapod’s Soccer Kicker : Hexapod’s Soccer Kicker
Team Two : Team Two Simple robots - hexapods
2 servos
SoccerBot : SoccerBot
Final design of a quadruped walker : Final design of a quadruped walker
Block Diagram of the Simple Robot System : Block Diagram of the Simple Robot System Logic Power PWM Right PWM Left Motor Driver Motor Driver Motor Motor Voltage Regulator Motor Power Micro-Controller Battery Communication Signal Communication Module Motor Part
Sport Commentators : Sport Commentators Bug
Virginia Woolf : Virginia Woolf
Jonas : Jonas
Marvin the Crazy Robot : Marvin the Crazy Robot
Class Projects - Winter/Spring 2002 : Class Projects - Winter/Spring 2002 1. Robot position, orientation and conflict detection using top-mounted camera
2. Ball recognition and vision interface to the server
3. Server and user interface
4. Egoistic soccer-playing strategy
5. Collaborative soccer-playing strategy
6. Recovery from body conflicts such as leg entanglements of robots
Class Projects - Winter/Spring 2002 : Class Projects - Winter/Spring 2002 7. Design of robo-head sport commentator: speech and natural language generation.
8. Mechanical improvements to robots
9. Design of a special soccer player hexapod.
Slide42 : Image Processing: find position, orientation and conflicts of a walker
Slide43 : Filtering, histogramming, Hough transform, equations
Localization, orientation, conflicts (leg entanglements)
Robo Soccer - Why is it so cool? : Robo Soccer - Why is it so cool? Is Robot Soccer useful?
Is the result of Robot Soccer useful?
Is Robot Soccer the worlds largest playground?
Is there money to be made with robots to play sports?
Why are Robot Sports so cool? : Why are Robot Sports so cool? Captures the essence of soccer. (That’s why there can be a lot of people cheering on the teams)
”Hacker-party” more than a dull academic conference….that is, it is a lot of activity.
Interesting problem in co-ordinating 11 processes to achieve a common goal.
The width of the field, from Robotic-nerds to Sociologists.
Why are Robot Sports so cool? : In the simulator league, you are forced to learn many concepts:
for example network communication, multi-threading, agents, hardware, etc.
Testbed for AI-algorithms, sociological theories.
Fairly simple environment.
A limited set of rules (also predefined), but always close to real world problems. Why are Robot Sports so cool?
What are the problems with Robot Competitions ? : What are the problems with Robot Competitions ? Too much work before reaching an interesting research level
Too much focus on low level implementation (still)
Still focus on competing instead of comparing of strategies.
Research : Research We do research in several areas:
Machine learning (constructive induction)
Decision theory
Social agents
walker’s gaits evolution
+more
In all of the above we plan to use robot sports as a testbed, or applied area.
Conclusion : Conclusion Robot sports areTHE new standard problem within AI.
1500 researchers world-wide.
Focuses on interdisciplinary co-operative work between the researchers as well as co-operation between the agents.
New experience for PSU
Current class : Current class 4 ME students
3 CS students
3 EE students Using existing robots CS and EE students develop software ME students develop 2 new robot prototypes and kits with good documentation CS and EE students build new robots from kits ME students adopt software to new robots and learn programming 6 robots of two types build and tested in July
Current class : Current class 4 ME students
3 CS students
3 EE students Using existing robots CS and EE students develop software ME students develop 2 new robot prototypes and kits with good documentation CS and EE students build new robots from kits ME students adopt software to new robots and learn programming 6 robots of two types build and tested in July
Technical Publications : Technical Publications Hiroaki Kitano, Masahiro Fujita, Stephane Zrehen , and Koji Kageyama, "Sony Legged Robot for RoboCup Challenge",
In Proceedings of the IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION, IEEE, 1998, pp.2605-2612
Manuela Veloso, William Uther, Masahiro Fujita, Minoru Asada, and Hiroaki Kitano, "Playing Soccer with Legged Robot",
In Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS, 1998, pp.437-442 Let us go deeper
How to find more about RoboCup? : How to find more about RoboCup? Web Pages:
http://medialab.di.unipi.it/Project/Robocup
http://www.robocup.org
http://www.dsv.su.se/~robocup