Eurobot 2002

Participation of University of Liège


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Context and objectives of the project

Robotics ...

Mobile robots provide an interesting platform for a lot of research fields. There are example of applications in large extend of domains, from applied sciences - trajectories control, inductive learning - to biology or social sciences - interaction between similar agents, behavior of colony, ... Irrespective to the different fields of research, we can say that robotics will always be at the intersection of mechanics, electronics and data processing.
Despite the wide area of research fields, the visual and play aspects of robotics are very important. They provide a motivation ...

University of Liege

The Eurobot project took part in the framework of a broader research project at the department Montefiore aimed at the development of a small team of mobile robots able to participate in a collective ball game involving throwing or catching actions (e.g. volley ball, juggling patterns, ...). The three research axes of this project are a) the control of coordinated dynamical tasks, b) the network formation of identical embedded systems and c) the development of applied inductive learning with multi-agents.

Having no experience in mobile robotics, the participation to the Eurobot competition was a way to develop knowledge inside the University. Our team was composed of a dozen of researchers and students coming from mechanics, electronics and computer science. Eurobot seems affordable, the rules change every year and the experienced opponents didn't have a insurmountable lead.

Objectives and spirit of the participation

This first participation to a robotics contest should represent solid basis for later. From the beginning, this year participation comes in the idea to take part in the further editions of EUROBOT. From this point of view, we watched to develop robust and modulable architectures, reusable in the future.

For this first participation our objectives were to build a robot able to play a match and more to finish in the top three teams in Belgium, and so to be qualified to the international round of the competition. Our objectives were achieved : we won the Belgian Cup and even finished in the top ten in France.



Eurobot : context and rules

The context

The first edition of the Belgian Robotics Cup has been organized by the PASS (Parc d'Aventures Scientifiques) and the JSB (Jeunesse Scientifiques Belges). It took place in Frameries (near Mons) on April 27 and 28. This competition is a play, scientific and technical challenge proposed to University and engineering schools students and to independent robotics clubs. The three top Belgian teams would win a qualification for the fifth edition of the international EUROBOT competition, in France. Rules change each year but the spirit of the competition remains : the exchange and the comparison of knowledge in a friendly and sporting spirit.

Rules of the game

The 2002 theme was the Flying Billiards, the playing field is represented on the right.

During the match, each robot, completely autonomous, must place a maximum of red balls in the pockets on the opposite side and black balls on his side of the playing field. The pockets are not on the field level but elevated, the robot has to lift the ball to score one point. Speed is a major constraint as the game only longs 1'30" !
The complete rules can be found on the web site of the Eurobot : www.anstj.org/robot/concours/eurobot/garde_en.html .



Documentation

Web site

A web site is dedicated to the participation to Eurobot 2002 : www.boniver.net/~eurobot .

Report

A document gathers the one-year work realized for 2002 Eurobot competition. Futures participants as well as people interested in robotics may be interested in the reading. It details the participation of University of Liège to the 2002 Eurobot robotics competition. The first part of the document covers the technical aspects including the mechanics, the electronics and the information processing. The second part is dedicated to the logistics : organization, schedule and evolution of the project.

Version "ps" of the document : report.tar (3.6 M)


last update: 28.08.2000
Author:  Fabien DEFAYS