The fact that the tournament in Portugal was able to take place was a great relief for the soccer robots and their human supervisors, says team member Ruben Beumer. “Especially because we were finally able to practice against a real opponent again.” The title itself carried less weight; especially considering VDL was the only opponent. “Many teams halted all their activities during the pandemic, particularly in the Middle Size League, where our Turtles compete. That said, there were actually more teams competing in the league for smaller robots.” He expects that some six or seven teams will take on the Eindhoven soccer robots in Bangkok. “It’s quite exciting, because we have no idea how the opponents have developed these last few years.”

One thing is certain, Peter van Dooren adds: “A robot that has been non-operational for a few years will almost certainly no longer work. That means you’ll have to start testing again.” Mechanical engineer Van Dooren, who, like Beumer, is a PhD student working in the robotics group of Tech United founder René van de Molengraft, is in charge of Tech United’s ‘service branch’. Service robot HERO will be dispatched to Bangkok to participate in the @Home competition. “Nothing had been arranged for us in Portugal, so we practiced as best we could in our new home, the Impuls building.”

During the Covid-19 era, HERO practiced so-called “grasp detection”, Van Dooren says. For example, one of the assignments for the service robots was to bring a glass of water to a patient. “If they drop it, or fail to grasp it, most robots still don’t notice it. Our goal is for our robots to respond more to what is actually happening, and less to what has been programmed.”