VDL Robot Sports

Here you’ll find new and noteworthy items about our team.

Robot Sports team continued developments

The Robot Sports team started the activities after a break because of COVID-19. Not surprisingly, the World Cup in Bordeaux was postponed to June 2021. The team hold virtual team meetings to keep in contact with the team. We took the time for extensive discussion the last test match and analyze the data collected. A number of concepts applied in the robots have been explained and discussed in order to increase the general knowledge of this.

Recently we are able to go to the Robot Sports Arena again. The integration of the new platform has started, the first player has been assembled, the electronics have been connected and the first meters have been driven. More news will follow soon. The new robot is equipped with a computer running Ubuntu 20.04. The old robots and development laptops were migrated from Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 20.04.

Besides the new environment and the new motion software, several small improvements have been made for better diagnostics. Support for the new Refbox protocol (JSON) have been made. A few small changes for the soccer behavior were made. Tthe player with the ball will get more space from his own defenders. The players will try to avoid the passes to a teammate and interrupt the shots on goal.

Collaboration between Robot Sports and RIF RoboCup team of Fontys ICT

VDL Robot Sports works together with the RIF Robocup team of Fontys ICT. The new robot platform of RIF Robocup team is under construction. Their software is tested in a simulation environment. The VDL Robot Sport robots will be available for RIF Robocup team to test their new software. However, the software architecture of both robots is different. During the last months a code analysis has been made by the RIF team members, Eric, Mathijs and Adrian. The results of this analysis and a plan on how to execute the RIF software on the VDL Robot Sports were presented to the team members of the VDL Robot Sport team on 19 February. This was a interactive and educational meeting.

Second test match as preparation for the RoboCup 2020

On Thursday, February 20, 2020 was the second of a serie testgames with the ASML Falcons. We played again with the ASML Falcons in the Robotsport Arena. It was a useful game with lessons learned for both teams. The final score was still not as desired (0-5 lost). Self localisation and passing need clearly improvements. All field players played the complete game without an injury treatment. The defense was outstanding, there was a fanatic and effective defense. Allez Robotsports!

The road to RoboCup 2020

Robot Sports is preregistered to participate at the RoboCup World Cup 2020 in Bordeaux (France) in June 2020.

As part of the qualification process the team has to provide a lot of information about the team.
A team description paper, details about the mechanics, electronics and software, publications and contributions and a video.
The information can be at the qualification material 2020 page.

We will continue to create a new generation of robots, improve the behavior and play test-matches a preparation to RoboCup 2020.

Our new robots

Our new robot is getting assembled. During the last matches we had issues with the robustness of our hardware. This started a revision of our current platform. In the last months the robot has been designed and parts were ordered. Now we are building the first new robot.