Interview with Roberto Figueiredo: the RoboCup expertise

Roberto Figueiredo is a grasp’s pupil on the College of Aveiro. He’s a member of the Daring Hearts RoboCup crew which competes within the Humanoid KidSize soccer league. He’s presently the native consultant for the Junior Rescue Simulation. We spoke to Roberto about his RoboCup journey, from the junior to the most important 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 really occurred in Portugal, and it was just 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 prior to now, however simulation gave me a little bit of an introduction to the extra theoretical features of robotics, and to AI normally. Rescue simulation makes you consider methods to make the robots impartial and never manually managed by people.

Roberto’s first RoboCup in 2016, Leipzig, pictured with the Singapore crew celebrating after the finals.

May you inform us in regards to the subsequent RoboCup occasions that you simply 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 fulfill a number of new individuals in new international locations. We did fairly properly on this competitors as properly, I believe we reached fifth place.

After that we went to European RoboCup Junior in Italy. The next yr was my final RoboCup as a junior, which was in Sydney. That was additionally an fascinating occasion and I obtained 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 become involved with a serious league RoboCup crew.

There’s a large hole between the junior and main leagues. After I joined my crew (the Daring Hearts), a lot of the crew have been PhDs and I used to be only a second yr bachelor’s pupil so it was fairly arduous to choose up all of the data. Nevertheless, if you’re persistent sufficient and you have an interest in, and obsessed with, robotics you’ll get the grasp of it and also you’ll be taught by trial and error.

EuroRoboCup 2022 in Portugal. Roberto (kneeling in picture) was a part of the organising committee.

When was your first competitors with the crew within the main league?

My first competitors was really final yr, in Thailand. We didn’t carry out as we want to, nonetheless, there’s far more to RoboCup than simply the competitors – it’s now extra of a scientific and knowledge-sharing occasion, it’s distinctive. Simply this yr, 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 crew that was utilizing the identical software program – they’d found out the issue earlier than and so they informed us find out how to resolve it. I don’t suppose you’ll see that in different competitions. Each crew has a joint goal which is making science progress, making friendships, and making different groups higher by sharing their data. That’s actually distinctive.

How did you be part of the Daring Hearts crew?

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 type of training. After I joined, I knew there was a crew so I used to be already trying ahead to becoming a member of. After a few years of labor, we lastly obtained to go to a contest as a crew. It’s been a tremendous time and an enormous studying expertise.

What’s your function on the crew?

In our crew, everybody does a little bit of every little thing. We nonetheless have a number of issues to unravel – on each the {hardware} and software program aspect. All of us presently are laptop scientists so it’s a bit extra of a wrestle to work on the {hardware} aspect. So, I do a little bit of every little thing, each AI and non-AI associated issues. For instance, I’ve achieved some 3d modelling for the robots, and I’m presently engaged on the balancing downside. All of us work collectively on the issues which is wonderful since you get to see a little bit of every little thing and be taught from everybody. Robotics is a really multidisciplinary subject. You get to find out about all types of subjects: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, machine studying, coding normally.

The Daring Hearts’ qualification video for this yr’s RoboCup competitors

May you inform us about this yr’s competitors (which occurred in Bordeaux)?

This yr we have been much more ready than final yr, after we’d simply come again from COVID, and all of our skilled members had just lately left the crew, as a result of ending their PhDs and beginning work. Making a profitable robotic crew is a big integration downside. 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 obtained strolling working completely this yr, we had imaginative and prescient working properly too, and we had a steady determination tree, and we have been in a position to hearken to the controller (which is sort of a referee and passes on details about fouls, sport begin and stops and so forth.). Nevertheless, we had some bugs within the determination tree that made every little thing disintegrate and we spent a number of time making an attempt to debug it. This occurs to a number of groups. Nevertheless, you possibly can nonetheless admire the work and progress of what they’ve achieved.

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

What are the quick plans for the crew?

We are actually fascinated by 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 arduous. You want a great simulation base to have the ability to switch instantly the data to the robotic. We’re engaged on having an excellent simulation so we are able to switch, no less than extra simply, the data learnt in simulation to the robots.

RoboCup is shifting extra in the direction of AI and studying, which we are able to see within the 3d simulation. The robots be taught a number of the movement by reinforcement studying, for instance. Within the bodily leagues it’s not as simple as now we have to switch that to the actual world, the place there’s play within the joints, there’s backlash, there’s play within the 3d elements – there are a number 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 fascinated by what I’m going to do subsequent. I couldn’t be extra impressed. It’s a extremely intense subject however I adore it. It makes you wish to work actually arduous and it makes you obsessed with science. I did my bachelor’s challenge 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 crew again in Portugal. I’m going to do my grasp’s thesis on robotics, on humanoids. I believe humanoids are a really complicated and fascinating problem. There isn’t any one single resolution.

About Roberto

Roberto Figueiredo is a Portuguese, AI-focused laptop scientist with a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Hertfordshire. He presently pursuing a grasp’s in Robotics and Clever Methods from the College of Aveiro, and is obsessed with advancing his experience in robotics. He has lengthy been very captivated with robots and AI, being a participant in RoboCup since 2016 within the Rescue Simulation league. He has since turn into native consultant for the Rescue League in Portugal and joined a Main crew, Daring Hearts, within the Child Measurement league, some of the difficult in RoboCup Humanoid Soccer.