Soccer Robots | ||||||||
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Why did the RoboCup federation choose for a football league? First of all, soccer is a popular sport worldwide so soccer competitions get a lot of attention from spectators around the world.
The soccer robots must communicate with each other and with elements from its constantly changing environment. Think about the interaction between the robots and the referee or deciding which robot will take a free kick, which robot will be the attacker or will stay in front of the goal to defend. The speed of the game forces us to come up with efficient algorithms. At the same time, the fixed dimensions of the field give us a starting point from which we can start making smart localization and object detection.
Playing soccer with robots is a huge challenge on the field of software and mechatronics. Moreover, the element of competition makes that the entire team is highly motivated so they will spend a large part of their spare time on improving the robots. Everyone dreams of being the world champion some day!
There are different RoboCup competitions: Some of them, but not all, are the Simulation League, Small Size League, Middle Size League, Standard Platform League and Humanoid League.
The soccer robots of Tech United participate in the Middle Size League. This is a competition of robots with a maximum size of 52x52x80 cm. They play fully autonomously. The only interaction with humans is that with the referee, who can start or stop they play when necessary.
Do you like to know more about all the aspect of our robots? Click here!
2021
World Championship, Worldwide: Technical Challenge Award.
2019
World Championship, Sydney, Australia: 1st place. Scientific Challenge Award.
Portuguese Open, Porto: 2nd place
2017
World Championship, Nagoya, Japan: 2nd place. Scientific Challenge Award.
Portuguese Open, Coimbra: 1st place
2015
World Championship, Hefei, China: 2nd place. Scientific Challenge Award.
Portuguese Open, Vila Real: 1st place
2013
World Championship, Eindhoven, the Netherlands: 2nd place. Scientific Challenge Award.
Portugese Open, Lisbon, Portugal: 1st place
2011
World Championship, Istanbul, Turkey : 2nd place
German Open Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany: 1st place
2009
World Championship, Graz, Germany : 2nd place
German Open, Hannover, Germany: 3rd place
2007
World Championship, Atlanta, USA: 5th place
German Open, Hannover, Germany: 3rd place
2005
Toboludens Dutch Open, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
2018
World Championship, Montreal, Canada: 1st place. Technical and Scientific Challenge Award.
Portuguese Open, Torres Vedras, Portugal: 1st place
2016
World Championship, Leipzig, Germany: 1st place
Portuguese Open, Braganca: 2nd place
RoboCup Eindhoven Open, Eindhoven, the Netherlands: 1st place
2014
World Championship, João Pessoa, Brazil: 1st place
Portuguese Open, Porto, Portugal: 1st place
2012
World Championship, Mexico city, Mexico: 1st place. Scientific Challenge Award.
RoboCup Dutch Open, Eindhoven, the Netherlands: 1st place
2010
World Championship, Singapore: 2nd place. Scientific Challenge Award.
German Open, Magdeburg, Germany: 1st place
2008
World Championship, Suzhou, China: 2nd place
German Open, Hannover Germany: 1st place
2006
World Championship, Bremen, Germany
Once a year, our team publishes a Team Description Paper. These documents describe the main innovations for each RoboCup season. For 2022 the TDP can be found below.
Every year Tech United's TURTLE has to show its abilities in a 1 minute short movie. This video shows all the basic abilities and special features of our TURTLE. Last years movie is visible below.
The technical drawings of the Tech United hardware can be found by clicking on the following links (zip files).
Mechanical drawings | Electrical drawings
A detailed list of hardware specifications, along with CAD files of the base, upper-body, ball handling and shooting mechanism, has been published on a ROP wiki which can be viewed by clicking here. The size and weight of our robots can be found here.
The Tech United software can be found here. The structure of the software is explained using MATLAB Simulink flow charts, which can be found by clicking on the links below (opening in Internet Explorer requires a seperate plugin).
Software Scheme | Motion | Vision | World model