The design of an intelligent soccer-playing robot

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to design intelligent robots operating in such dynamic environments like the RoboCup Middle-Size League (MSL). In the RoboCup MSL, two teams of five autonomous robots play on an 18- × 12-m field. Equipped with sensors and on-board computers, each robot should be able to perceive the environment, make decision and control itself to play the soccer game autonomously. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the design of our soccer robots, participating in RoboCup MSL. The mechanical platform, electrical architecture and software framework are discussed separately. The mechanical platform is designed modularly, so easy maintainability is achieved; the electronic architecture is built on industrial standards using PC-based control technique, which results in high robustness and reliability during the intensive and fierce MSL games; the software is developed upon the open-source Robot Operating System (ROS); thus, the advantages of ROS such as modularity, portability and expansibility are inherited. Findings – Based on this paper and the open-source hardware and software, the MSL robots can be re-developed easily to participate in the RoboCup MSL. The robots can also be used in other research and education fields, especially for multi-robot systems and distributed artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the main designing ideas proposed in the paper, i.e. using a modular mechanical structure, an industrial electronic system and ROS-based software, provide a common solution for designing general intelligent robots. Originality/value – The methodology of the intelligent robot design for highly competitive and dynamic RoboCup MSL environments is proposed.

Adaptive Structures and Biomimetic Robots – A Perspective

“…The step forward that this technology has moved in the recent years are impressive. There do exist robot able to play soccer, [13], to shoot with extreme precision, [14], to bring delicate substances from a place to another, [15], and even to operate autonomously, almost or completely. That latter aspect is, however, part of other subjects and is herein left apart.…”

Distributed Circumnavigation Control with Dynamic Spacing for a Heterogeneous Multi-robot System

“…We defineφ = [φ 1 ...φ n ] T and ϕ = [ϕ 1 ... ϕ n ] T , so (12) and (13) can be written into compact forms respectively as follows:…”

“…Moreover, it should be noted that robots do not know what the holistic expected formation is; the actual formation (or spacing) among robots adapt dynamically to the variations of the local utilities of neighboring robots. In addition, when a robot joins or leaves the formation, according to (12) and (13), the spacing among robots will adjust dynamically through local update of the utilities of neighboring robots. To sum up, the utility-based circumnavigation control algorithm does not rely on the number of robots, and it is able to dynamically adjust the formation spacing dependent on the change of utilities.…”

“…In this experiment, four soccer-playing robots [12,13] are used and Formation Guideline 1 is adopted. Since the soccer-playing robots have omnidirectional movement abilities and they can reach any given velocity instantly, their dynamics can be regarded as the first-integrator model given in (1).…”

Advance Attack and Defense Strategy Algorithm With Dynamic Role Assignment for Wheeled Soccer Robot

“…This is also proven to increase the number of goals significantly. Dynamic role assignment and non-hierarchical cooperation and hierarchical cooperation in MSL have been also implemented in [13]. This study develops advanced attack and defense algorithms for MSL soccer robot with dynamic role assignment and robot capability consideration.…”