A first participation to the Robot World Cup
More than 40 students from Toulon University have worked during one year on our RoboCup project in order to participate in the robot soccer World Cup 2019.
After being qualified in February, Robot Club Toulon went to Sydney in July to compete in the Middle Size League (MSL), considered as one of the most difficult ones.
Participating in this first competition was a real challenge. First, we where the first french team in MSL for ten years, then building a whole team in only one year is a very difficult challenge considering the number of technical and organizational issues, including carrying a team of robots over the world.
Toulon University RCT Team
Toulon University Team at work in Sydney
Exchange with other teams, here the Japanese MSL team from Fukuoka University
Many thanks to Toulon University and to our sponsors
Participating into one of the most difficult robot competition wouldn’t be possible without the support of our sponsors, and we want to thanks them again :
- Toulon University : we where very proud of representing Toulon University and France in RoboCUp MSL, among the best robots teams from all over the world. We really thank our president and all the people involved in this project at Toulon University.
- IUT of Toulon which is a part of Toulon University, played a major role for funding and organizing administratively the project, and also for the technical contribution of their skilled staff, especially at GEII and GMP departments.
- Conseil Departemental du Var for their major contribution in funding the project and for their strong support.
- SICK : many thanks to SICK company for their amazingly robust and reliable sensors used in our robots. Our TIM561 Lidars where particularly studied by other teams to imagine what can be done with them in combination with imaging sensors.
- Radiospares : many thanks to Radiospares for their support in the RoboCup 2019, as a very efficient component and parts supplier in mechanics and electronics.
2019 Results
RoboCup Middle Size League has a scientifical and technical challenge dedicated to present one or more innovations in any technical domain related to the RoboCup.
Our team has presented two innovations about omnidirectional vision systems and kicking system optimisation. We where given the third place for the points awarded to the 2019 scientific and technical improvements, just after the 2 last world champions, Tech United from Netherland and Cambada from Portugal. As a final score, we where awarded a 6th overall place on the scientific and technical challenge because the final ranking takes into account the competition results of the last few years.
One of these innovations has been published in an international conference paper involving several students of Seatech, as well has the team description paper which has been publishd also. A journal paper has also been accepted for this topic.
Considering the competition in itself, our team didn’t participated in full games, because we spent much time on making our camera based positionning system work. The reason is simple, we don’t have a full field at home in Toulon, and for the first year, we needed time to set-up our system and algorithms in a real full size field.
During the week, every member of RCT team spent hours for exchanging with other team members, studying and understanding how other robots are working. Now, we have a clear view of the roadmap for being competitive in RoboCup Bordeaux 2020 !
Robot Club Toulon Team in Sydney
Conclusion
As a conclusion, it was a priority to enter the competition this year in order to understand the league, to meet other teams, and to share experience with them. We also met many people from other leagues, such as humanoid leagues, leading to strong connections with other french teams and with researchers from all over the world.
More than this, we have achieved a very good result in the scientific and technical challenge just after two former world champions.
Thanks again to everyone having supported or participated in this project, and congratulations to all the students who spent countless hours of hard work on it !
And now, let’s go to Bordeaux 2020 for a new challenge !
