The soccer team’s technicians have been doing a lot of work on the robots ahead of this year’s World Championships, which start on 30 June in Leipzig, especially in the area of ball possession. The interception of long passes has improved along with winning the ball in a duel. Keeping possession has also been improved – the robot with the ball is now given the best possible protection by a teammate while the attacking play of the Eindhoven robots has gone up a notch since the last World RoboCup. Rising shots on goal have become more accurate and a new free-kick variation involving three players has been developed.

The soccer robots are around eighty centimeters in height, mobile andspecially made for soccer. They play in five-a-side matches using a real soccer ball. Each robot in the team thinks and plays autonomously, with no human control. So you won’t see any joysticks.

The @Home League is a competition for robots that act as helpers in the home. The matches consist of challenges, like taking orders for drinks and then serving these in the right place. The TU Eindhoven robot, AMIGO, came second in the 2014 World Championships, and earlier this year beat the reigning world champion at the RoboCup European Open in Eindhoven. So expectations for the team are high. This year AMIGO has acquired better grasping techniques and is better able to recognize and follow people. The successor to AMIGO, called SERGIO, is not yet quite ready but will still take part in a few challenges.

The RoboCup 2016 is from 30 June till 3 July in Leipzig, Germany. Around 3500 participants from more than 40 countries are expected. The final will be on Sunday 3 July and the matches of the Eindhoven team can be seen live on the team’s live stream www.techunited.nl.

Source: TU/e Persteam