The RoboCup German Open is the only European RoboCup tournament this year where participation is possible in the @Home-League, so it is regarded as the unofficial European Championship for service robots, and a serious yardstick for the Worlds at the end of July in Nagoya, Japan.

The result in Germany gives team leader Matthijs van der Burgh more confidence going forward to ‘Japan’. “The winner, Homer from Koblenz, really was better now. But we have an opportunity over the coming months to make real progress and have a real shot at winning next time around in Japan.”

Despite the fact that Tech United had won the Europeans over the past two years, the runner-up spot was not a disappointment. The team had not left for Magdeburg with any big expectations since it had not been able to implement the necessary changes and innovations in time. To have got second is testimony to the efforts of the team.

Van der Burgh: “We squeezed everything we could out of it. During the tournament we were still able to put new skills into practice. AMIGO can now, for instance, recognize people’s skeletal posture from its camera images. He can see very clearly whether someone is waving or pointing. And that helps when performing tasks.”

The @Home-League is a competition for autonomous robots that act as home helps. The aim is to develop affordable and reliable robots that can assist independent people in the home so that they can continue living at home independently for longer. The Eindhoven team was World Championship runner-up in both 2014 en 2016, so is hoping this year to go one better in Japan and win its first world title.

Source: TU/e press team