RoboFesta-UK: UK Robotics Education News

RoboCup 2008, Suzhou International Expo Centre, 15-19 July

As tensions rise in the run-up to the Olympic Games, ten teams of youngsters are preparing to travel to China this month to represent the UK in the junior league at RoboCup 2008, to be held in the Suzhou International Expo Centre overlooking Jinji Lake on 15-19 July.

The teams will participate in three competitions – RoboDance, RoboRescue and RoboSoccer:
• In RoboDance, for children aged seven and over, one or more robots perform to music in a display emphasising creativity of costume and movement. Optionally, the contestants may dance along with their robots, and may even compose and perform the music.
• In RoboRescue, for nine to eighteen year olds, robots race to rescue victims in a simulated disaster. Each time they encounter a “body”, made of green or silver vinyl film, they stop and flash a lamp for two seconds.
• In RoboSoccer, for eleven to eighteen year olds, autonomous robots jostle for control of the infrared emitting ball, on a greyscale pitch.

For each competition, the team must build and program one or more robots appropriate for the task.

RoboCupJunior

The Open University Robotics Outreach Group is a multidisciplinary research group that develops widening participation and educational outreach activities and administers RoboCupJunior and other robotics competitions in the UK.

RoboCup is an international scientific endeavour whose goal is to produce a humanoid robot football team capable of beating the human World Cup champions by the year 2050. RoboCupJunior is designed to introduce RoboCup to primary and secondary school children. The focus in the junior league is on education. RoboCupJunior intends to inspire today’s children to become tomorrow’s engineers – perhaps the same engineers who’ll create the 2050 humanoid robot football champions!

RoboCupJunior offers several challenges, each emphasizing both cooperative and competitive aspects. For children, the Junior initiative provides an exciting introduction to the field of robotics, a new way to develop technical abilities through hands-on experience with electronics, hardware and software, and a highly motivating opportunity to learn about teamwork while sharing technology with friends. RoboCupJunior provides a unique opportunity for participants with a variety of interests and strengths to work together as a team to achieve a common goal.

This year’s ten UK teams were selected on the basis of their performance in regional tournaments and national finals earlier this year. The Dance final was held at Cranfield University in February, and the Rescue and Soccer finals were held at Calday Grange Grammar School, Wirral in March. Dr Ashley Green, RoboFesta Research Fellow at the Open University and one of the organizers of RoboCup 2008, notes that “This year’s teams are having far more bureaucratic hurdles to overcome to get to the world finals than in previous years, but we’re all eagerly looking forward to spending a week in the classical garden city of Suzhou, which has been a centre of China’s silk industry for more than a millennium. We are fielding our strongest UK teams ever. Our World Champion Secondary Robot Dance team from Suffolk will be defending their title (earned at RoboCup 2007 in Atlanta last year) against stiff opposition from the best Chinese, German and Japanese teams. In their RoboDance performance St. Trinians, the team members dance in formation with a life-size humanoid robot that they’ve constructed and programmed themselves.”

RoboCupJunior History

RoboCupJunior began in 1998, with a demonstration at RoboCup-98 in Paris. The following year, RoboCup-99 in Stockholm exhibited the first interactive RoboCupJunior workshops. At RoboCupJunior 2000 in Melbourne, over 25 teams from Australia, Germany and the USA participated.

At RoboCupJunior 2001 in Seattle, 25 teams from the USA, Australia, Germany and the UK entered soccer, rescue and dance challenges. A brother and sister team, Max and Grace Petre Eastty from Heronsgate Middle School in Milton Keynes, earned the title of World Primary Robot Dance Champions.

RoboCupJunior 2002 was held in Fukuoka, Japan. 59 teams from 12 countries participated.

RoboCupJunior 2003 was held in Padua, Italy. 68 teams from 15 countries took part.

RoboCupJunior 2004 was held in Lisbon, Portugal. 172 teams from 17 countries took part.

RoboCupJunior 2005 was held in Osaka, Japan. 160 teams from 18 countries participated.

RoboCupJunior 2006 was held in Bremen, Germany. 240 teams from 22 countries took part. An all-girls team from Amberfield School in Nacton, Suffolk won the title of World Primary Robot Dance Champions.

RoboCupJunior 2007 was held in Atlanta, USA. 124 teams from 23 countries participated. A team from Amberfield School and Farlingaye High School in Suffolk won the title of World Secondary Robot Dance Champions.

RoboCupJunior 2008 will be held in Suzhou, China. Approximately 200 teams from 21 countries are expected to take part.

Resources

http://www.robocup-cn.org/
http://www.robocupjunior.org/
http://rcj.open.ac.uk/

Images from previous RoboCupJunior events can be viewed at http://robotgallery.open.ac.uk/rcj-uk.

Media contact: Dr Ashley A. Green