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FIRA
Federation of International Robosoccer Association
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FIRA 2005 Singapore
Contact person: Dr Chew Chee Meng (mpeccm@nus.edu.sg)
The 10th FIRA RoboWorld Cup was held in Orchard Hotel, Singapore from 12th to 14th December 2005.
This year, there were 83 teams from 16 countries participating in eight categories of Robot soccer. Team RO-PE from Department of Mechanical Engineering, which was led by Dr Chew Chee Meng, had participated in the HuroSot (Humanoid Robot Soccer Tournament) category. This team was made up of one M.Eng. student (also the team leader), seven B.Eng.students and one exchange student (from Warsaw Institute of Technology).
Although the team had participated in RoboCup's Humanoid League in the past two years, this was the first time the team participated in FIRA's HuroSot. The team had entered its latest humanoid robot, RO-PE IV, for the competition.
The HuroSot category essentially consists of four physical challenges: (a) robot forward/backward dash, (b) penalty kick, (c) obstacle run, and (d) lift and carry. In each day of the competition, each team's robot had to take part in all the challenges. The best two results for each challenge over the three day competition period will be used to rank the overall performance for a team.
Team RO-PE had managed to achieve second place in HuroSot after the three days of intense competitions. This is considered to be a great achievement considering that this is the first time the team had participated in this event. In fact, the team had suffered major setback in the first day due to the failure of a key sensor and problem with the robot vision system. This had affected the ability of the robot to orientate itself in the field and to track the ball effectively. Through excellent teamwork, the team had managed to overcome the latter problem and work around the former problem to regain most of its original performance level. In fact, if both problems did not occur in the first place, the team could have secured the first place.
After the competition, the team had demonstrated the goalkeeping behavior of its robot to the audience. RO-PE-IV, playing as a goalkeeper, was able to dive sideway to intercept the incoming ball. This demonstration had created lots of excitement for the audience.
Although FIRA competition is not the main focus of the team, the team had gained much experience through this participation. This is important for the team as it will be participating in the even more challenging RoboCup 2006 event which will be held in Bremen, Germany, during the month of June. The team is currently looking forwards to this event while trying to further improve the performance of the robot.
Contact person: Dr Chew Chee Meng (mpeccm@nus.edu.sg)
Group photo of the team members after receiving the award.
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RO-PE IV (with Robot Handler, Mr Liang Shuang) in the Lift and Carry challenge
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Team member, Mr Ma Chongyou, looked on as RO-PE IV was attempting the Obstacle Run challenge.
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Team members, Mr Yu Boon Tat (left) and Mr Lim Tongli (right), calibrating the vision system for the robot.
Figure: RO-PE IV (with Robot Handler, Mr Samuel Mui) playing the role of the goalkeeper in the demonstration game. |
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Figure: All participating robots lining up for photo taking.
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