RoboCup
Imagine being a robot. Not a fancy bipedal human-like walking robot,
but a simple two wheeled one with the appearance of a trash can.
Imagine your only view on the world is from a camera mounted on top of
your body that is only able to look straight ahead. You can't do
anything but rotating your left or right wheel and folding out your
aluminum leg. Finally, you don't have the luxury to lean back and
relax while a human operator takes some decision about what to do
next, no, you have to figure it out all by yourself. Your masters
expect you to play soccer with your robot friends and beat the other
team. Luckily you can speak with your friends to tell each other where
the ball is and discuss strategy and tactics. Sometimes however you're
not sure where you are on the field which complicates things
considerably.
How would you go about? This little story
captures the essence of the problems one is faced when designing an
autonomous robotic soccer player which has to coordinate its actions
with its teammates. Finding a good solution to problem is the subject
of my master's thesis. Its deals with the robots of Clockwork Orange, the Dutch RoboSoccer team which is a collaboration effort of the Delft
University of Technology, the Utrecht University and the University of
Amsterdam. Clockwork Orange participates in RoboCup Middle-size league.
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