Robots are increasingly making their presence felt not only in the industry, but also in football.
Germany’s B-Human team from the University of Bremen showed what small robots can do with their thrilling victory in the RoboCup in Sydney earlier this year.
The team took out first place in the Soccer Standard Platform major league, surpassing reigning world champion from Leipzig, Germany.
When it comes to robotics, the annual RoboCup is the most important international competition. Teams of apprentices, students and faculty meet each other to test their new developments, share their experiences and knowledge.
The most varied types of robots competed in six disciplines and in 18 leagues during the 4-day tournament in July – from football and maintenance/service up to logistics.
In the field of popular ball sports alone, various types of robots play in 10 leagues. In the Standard Platform league all teams play against each other, with five NAO robots in each team.
On the soccer field
Here, the German Standard Platform league champion could fight for the world championship title against the reigning world champion from Leipzig, which took second place after B-Human.
In the final of the league, B-Human from the University of Bremen and the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI – Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz) showed once again that they are among the best.
For the fourth time, Team B-Human and the reigning World Champions from Leipzig entered the final of the international RoboCup.
While the team from Bremen were superior without conceding goals in the preliminary round and in the semi and quarter-finals, they were trailing 0-1 after the first half in the final.
In an exciting second half, the small Bremen robots pulled together and won the world championship title with a 2-1 score at the final whistle.
Friends in high places
The B-Human team was supported by motion plastics specialist igus, which develops and produces robots for the industry, as part of the young engineers support (yes) initiative.
The igus initiative supports young pupils, students and inventors in the development and execution of their technical projects.
igus offers low-cost delta robots, linear robots and articulated arm robots alongside various modular systems which offer a wide range of maintenance-free and low-cost automation options.
The igus robotic components are available from Treotham Automation.
Treotham Automation Pty Ltd
1300 65 75 64
