1. Free University of Berlin Institute of Computer Science AI Group

2. F-180 Team

3. FU-Fighters

5. Motivation to participate in RoboCup SmallSize (F180)  Robotic soccer is fun  New benchmark problem for AI research  Interdisciplinary research  Focus both on individual robots and the team  SmallSize league needs only limited resources

6. Competitions  RoboCup’99 in Stockholm  first real games  second place  European competition in Paderborn  live broadcast on German TV (WDR)  inter league games (SmallSize & Mirosot)  winner  Show games ( Science Festival Bonn, Berlinale, CeBit)

7. Research issues  mechanical  fast, reliable robots  kicking devices  electrical  power supply  local control  second place  computer vision  real time object localisation and tracking  cope with occlusions, changes of lighting,...  behaviour control  individual actions  obstacle avoidance  ball handling  team play  communication

8. Mechanics and electronics  Aluminum frame to protect the electronics  Two individual DC-motors for differential drive  Passive sphere for third point of support  Shooting plate controlled by a third motor  On-board microcontroller Motorola HC05 Vision system  NTSC video camera (640x480 Pixel, 30fps)  Searches and tracks colored objects  Determines position of the ball, as well as position and orientation of all robots  Predicts positions in the next frame and investigates only small windows of the image

9. Behavior control  Reactive, layered system of sensors, behaviors, actuators within a time hierarchy  Higher sensory levels aggregate information  Higher-level behaviors modulate/configure lower-level behaviors  there is no explicit world model  fast reactions (reflexes) are possible

10. Behaviours  Level 1: drive to position, avoid obstacles  Level 2: approach ball, kick, dribble, free the ball,...  Level 3: decide which robot should take initiative  Level 4: passing,... (to be implemented)  Level 5: strategy changes,... (to be implemented)  Goal keeping behaviours Radio link  Transceiver working at 433-434.5 MHz  9600/19200 baud  Error tolerant transmission  Packets contain target speeds for the motors  Local control of motor speed

12. Who built them ? Our Stockholm‘99 team was composed of three researchers and seven students. Some students left the team, but we have also new members. Upper row: Wolf Lindstrot, Prof. Dr. Raúl Rojas, Manuel de Melo, Dipl.-Inf. Sven Behnke, Oliver Tenchio. Lower row: Martin Sprengel, Dipl.-Inf. Bernhard Frötschl, Mark Simon, Peter Ackers, Andreas Schebesch. New team members: Lars Knipping, Jong-Gill Park, Jörg Solger, André Vratislavsky, Lars Wolter, Andrea Schuhmann, Kirill Koulechov Building a team of robots is time consuming, but rewarding. One does not only learn about robotics, but also about teamwork and deadlines.

13. Logistics  curriculum  started in spring ‘98  seminars  practical lab work  lab  permanent field  camera, computer, tools  access to university workshop  competitions  10 persons and 6 robots went to Stockholm by car  need a truck to move the field  funding  no solid funding yet  support from the university  show game  sponsors (parts and some financial support)

14. Publications RoboCup'99 (F180) Team Description: FU-Fighters, Team Descriptions RoboCup'99 Stockholm, pp. 48-52, 1999. Using hierarchical dynamical systems to control reactive behavior, Proceedings IJCAI'99 - International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, The Third International Workshop on RoboCup, Stockholm, pp. 28-33, 1999. The Soul of a New Machine: The Soccer Robot Team of the FU Berlin, Technical Report B-12/99, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, FU Berlin, 1999

15. Contact Prof. Dr. Raúl Rojas, Sven Behnke, Bernhard Frötschl Email: {rojas, behnke, froetsch}@inf.fu-berlin.de Internet: http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/~robocup Phone.: +49 30 838 75 130 / 131 / 133 / 100, Fax: / 109 Mail: FU Berlin, Institut für Informatik, Takustr. 9, 14195 Berlin, Germany Sponsors We thank Conrad Electronic, Faulhaber Motors, Siemens ElectroCom Postautomation and Lufthansa Systems Berlin for their material and financial support

16. Future plan: Omnidirectional local vision