Roboday
Author: Martin Dlouhý, 2004-04-24
Czech Eurobot Cup 2004, robots...
The Roboday was successful . Although at first we were “slightly” worried.
The team form Brno announced, that they will arrive without their robot and
robot MartA from team MART was still not able to move at all. However
everything turned out to be fine at the end. More than 150 visitors came to see
the robots in action. To everyone's surprise also a lot of kids turned up (and
some really young too). That was something we were not ready for but finally
even the children were happy, when they could play with a robodog Aibo or feed
rugby balls to a walking robot.
Czech Eurobot Cup 2004
The main program of the Roboday was the first Czech Eurobot Cup.
Although it was relatively clear which three teams will go to France, due to the
fact that team JUNIOR from Brno came without their robot, the contest was
still dramatic and full of surprises. But let's start from the
beginning…
Homologation
Homologation was not completed before official opening as planned, and it
started in the presence of the audience. First successfully homologated robot
was Ester from the Sirael team – robot picked a ball at fixed position and
drop it to opposite lagoon. End of action. Spectators were a little bit
disappointed, but Sirael team indicated, that they will not show all the
trumps at the beginning. . Homologation of the team Short
Circuits Prague followed. The robot tried to pick two balls at once and they got
stuck in the manipulation mechanism. The first attempt failed completely, robot
did not score a single ball. The second try was successful, so there were at
least two teams going to qualification rounds. The most dramatic moment was
homologation of the third team – MART. Robot MartA never in its live moved
on the playfield and there were only five tries allowed. The first ride failed
– robot crossed the playfield but it did not score. The second try was
successful which the team, tired of couple day-and-nights of programming,
celebrated with exultation. At this moment the contest could be officially
ended, because three teams to go to France were selected. But there were plenty
of people looking for fun, so show must go on...
Qualifications
All matches for each qualification round were in the same order: Sirael
vs. Short Circuits, Short Circuits vs. MART and finally Sirael vs. MART. In the
first round made team Sirael mistake so their robot Ester after pull-up of cable
did not move. Starting using a cable was implemented too late, actually in presence
of spectators, and the new configuration was not tested by even single run (actually
there was no place where to test it – the only table was in the show room).
Daisy scored two balls. The result 0:6 (2 points for balls and 4 for the win).
[Comment: I am coping the results from the paper of referee and I see one extra line
Sirael 1, Short Circuits 2, MART 1. So importnat observation: points collected during
homologation counts! I suppose that nobody knew this detail during R-Day.]
As in the first match robot MartA did not start, so Daisy won another match.
The last match was more interesting. Both robots (Ester and MartA) recovered from
initial problems and Ester is winning 2:0 (score 6:1, 1 point for “active”
defeat).
The second round was very similar, except that Ester was much more active.
She was very nice to Daisy as well. At one moment she pushed three balls from
the neighbouring palm tree to her lagoon. The score was 1:11 for Short Circuits.
After that Ester become mad and started to shoot balls to laughing spectators.
She did not score a single point. On the other hand MartA with enough luck
performed slightly better. They won two matches Sirael vs. MART, sometimes with
help of Ester. Daisy handled situation the best. She won all the matches.
Table of matches:
| Sirael | Short Circuits | MART | | |
|---|
| Homologation | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 1st round | 0 | 2+4 | - |
| - | 2+4 | 0 |
| 2+4 | - | 0+1 |
| 2nd round | 0+1 | 7+4 | - |
| - | 2+4 | 0+1 |
| 0+1 | - | 1+4 |
|
| 3rd round | 0+1 | 3+4 | - |
| - | 3+4 | 1+1 |
| 0+1 | - | 3+4 |
| Sum | 11 | 45 | 17 |
| Ranking | 3. | 1. | 2. |
Finals
The two teams with maximum number of points made it to finals: Short Circuits
and MART. Only a single ball decided the very last match. Daisy scored and won the match.
The winner of Czech Eurobot Cup 2004 is the Short Circuits
Prague team with robot Daisy.
Lectures and presentations
There were several lectures and presentations between the rounds of the
Eurobot contest.
Their common topic was robotics. The first lecture with presentation had
Mr. Jan Šifner with the robot Spirit2. The robot made a very good impression
since it is a copy (1:1 scale) of the robot on Mars. It was interesting
to hear what various robots do in the Universe and what are the plans for their
application in the future.
In the second part Mr. Stanislav Medřický introduced association Amavet and
a construction kit Fischer Technik, which is used in their robo-clubs. This was followed
by presentation of company Cross, the Merkur manufacturer – Czech version of Mechano.
In the afternoon Luděk Žalud VTU Brno showed their system Orfeus,
rescue robots and international contest RoboCup Rescue, which he with his team
won last year. The second speaker from VTU Brno was Jakub Hrabec, who demonstrated
robotic soccer and very successful team
RoBohemia.
Very nice surprise was the presence of Richard Balogh from Bratislava, who
spoke about Istrobot contest with demo of several robots. The contest is held
regularly every year and you can find more details at
robotika.sk.
The last bigger presentation was conducted by Jan Chudoba and Petr Štěpán from
ČVUT FEL Praha. Their robodog Aibo quickly become a darling of the audience,
especially for the youngest, and robot with laser rangefinder was interesting for
the older.
Many hobbyists, students, model makers etc. also brought and showed their creations.
Demo of mini-contest of MiniSumo had Josef Szylar, Jiří Bezstarosti and
Jiří Rotta. Walking robots were from workshops of Robert Grepl from Brno and
Martin Locker from Rychnov. Martin also showed his robots for the Istrobot 2003 and
Istrobot 2004 contests. Finally you could see computer controlled crane, whose
author was Milan Málek junior. There were actually more people and robots, but I
unfortunately do not remember all their names, sorry.
Conclusion
I would like to thank to all participants: Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles
University Prague for their support (room for this action, space for robot preparation
during year, financial support for the playing field construction, parts etc.),
lectures, who for free showed various applications of robotics,
visitors for making the necessary environment
of real contest and finally the French organizers Véronique Raoul a Nicolas Boulay,
who while working as an independent referees created the crucial international context
of the Eurobot contest.
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, let us know via our standard
web forms:
RoboDay - comments. We are
looking forward to see you next year and all fingers crossed for three
teams going to France next month.
Other sources of pictures and information about the Roboday:
