2007 September - GoRobotics

Archive for September, 2007

Video from the RoboCup2007 Humanoid Final

Posted on September 3rd, 2007 in Latest News

We received a note from Sven Behnke of team NimbRo. He pointed us to a video the team had uploaded of the final RoboCup match between NimbRo and Team Osaka. We also took some video of the event, but unfortuatenly it didn’t turn out well. Sven wrote:

RoboCup 2007 took place from July 1st to July 8th in Atlanta, GA. In the final match the titleholder Team Osaka (Japan) met team NimbRo from Freiburg University (Germany). The same two teams had met in the two previous years. The 2007 final was one of the best humanoid soccer games ever, if not the best. Team Osaka played with one goalie and one field player while NimbRo used two field players. The Osaka robots were very quick to approach the ball and to kick it across the field. The NimbRo robots excelled in one-on-one fights for the ball and also demonstrated nice team play. The exciting game was open until the end. The final score was 8:6 for NimbRo.

The NimbRo robots not only won the KidSize soccer competition, but also the TeenSize Penalty Kick, where they defeated Pal Technology (Spain) 5:4 in the final.

More information and images can be found here:
http://www.NimbRo.net

Here’s is the video of the match:

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Build Your Own Underwater ROV For $250

Posted on September 2nd, 2007 in Hobbyist

Have you ever wanted to plumb the depths of your neighbors pond or swimming pool looking for lost treasure – cell phones, watches, … ? Well, thanks to the smart kids over at Carl Hayden High School (also check out their blog) you can now buy a ROV-in-a-Box Project Kit for a mere $250 USD.

The kit, which is being sold by !nventivity, LLC, …

Includes all the parts needed to build a working underwater robot: frame, motors, underwater light, camera, 50-foot tether, operator control box, and dry-cell battery.

For all you skin-flints out there, you can also buy just the instructions and parts list for $50. Using the three thrusters and built-in underwater camera, you’ll be up and swimming in no time – just plug the RCA video-out cable in a TV monitor for hot ROV action. Note that you’ll need to provide your own, "PVC cement, soldering iron, wrenches, drill, scissors, battery charger, or TV monitor", ok?

The kit is being promoted by the Honeywell Hometown Solutions National Underwater Robotics Challenge (NURC) for use in their upcoming 2008 Underwater Challenge.

The NURC website also has some tutorials for up-and-coming teams, on topics like, "make an inexpensive water-tight thruster ", or "make an inexpensive water-tight light" – many of which were also put together by the folks at Carl Hayden High.

You can see some video of the ROV (complete with kickin’ tunes) after the jump.

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Aldebaran-Robotics' NAO Chosen to be New Standard Platform for RoboCup

Posted on September 1st, 2007 in Latest News

The NAO Humanoid robot from French robotics company, Aldebaran Robotics, was recently chosen by the RoboCup Standard Platform League to be its new standard platform. The league, formerly known as the Four-Legged League, used to use Sony’s AIBO robot as it’s standard platform. However, since Sony has canceled its robotics divison, a new platform had to be chosen.

In the league all teams use identical robots. Therefore the teams concentrate on software development only, while still using state-of-the-art robots. The robots operate fully autonomously, i.e. there is no external control, neither by humans nor by computers. This year, the league goes through a transition from the four-legged Sony AIBO to the humanoid Aldebaran Nao.

This certainly is exciting news for Aldebaran Robotics, which is a relatively new company. They plan on releasing NAO to the general public later this year for around 3,000 EUROS, or about $4,000 USD.

We were able to talk to Bruno Maisonnier, the CEO of Aldebaran, at RoboCup2007 (this is prior to the announcement). You can check out the interview below: