The Robot Soccer World Cup, or RoboCup for short, is an annual international robotics competition. Founded in 1997, it was first held as a small side event of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence at Nagoya, Japan, with 38 teams participating. Twenty years later, after visiting a variety of countries, the competition returned larger than ever to Nagoya, with 500 teams participating from fifty countries.
The first Indian team to participate in this competition was Team AcYut from BITS Pilani in 2011 at Istanbul, Turkey. Since its debut at the competition, the team has solely participated in the Humanoid Teen Size league.
The team faced a few hurdles in the lead-up to RoboCup 2017. Due to some mechanical problems with the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) at the BITS Workshop, the bare minimum number of parts were created, all of which were either incomplete or slightly defective. However, the biggest hindrances to the robot’s performance were the five-year old motors used in its joints. All the motors used in the current iteration of the robot (AcYut VII) had malfunctioned at least once. Some of them had to be tinkered with for months to achieve functionality, while others were beyond repair, leading to a substantial drop in the torque provided.
A total of nine teams participated in the Teen Size league in 2017 and Team AcYut participated in two of the three events offered in this league – the round-robin league and the drop-in challenge. In the round-robin league each team played every other team once followed by the finals. In the drop-in challenge, the participating teams were partitioned into two randomized groups which then played against each other for points – with points being offered for team victory as well as goal-scoring. After several such rounds, the teams were ranked based on the points accrued. Despite the aforementioned hurdles faced, Team AcYut tied for fifth in the round-robin league and finished third in the drop-in challenge.
A large divide exists between teams participating in the RoboCup, which is exemplified in the Humanoid Leagues. As per the 2017 rulebook, each team may play up to three robots and two substitutes in the Teen Size league. However, only one team, NimbRo from University of Bonn, Germany, fully exploited this rule, while the other teams were elated when any one of their robots functioned correctly. NimbRo won all three events offered in the Teen Size league – sweeping the round-robin league with 27 goals scored and 0 goals conceded in all matches. The team that finished second, HuroEvolutionTN from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, had a score-line of 5:5 in comparison. NimbRo went on to dominate the Humanoid Adult Size League as well, winning the finals against Team Sweaty (also from Germany) 11-1, with the game being called off early due to the sheer goal difference.
Seasoned by the experience, Team AcYut set goals for the coming months and years; the team has prioritised finding avenues to replace their damaged motors and building a robust humanoid platform. Diversifying into other leagues of RoboCup, such as the Simulation and Small Size leagues, is one of the long-term goals. One hopes that they become a major player in RoboCup in the years to come.