RoboCup 2007 was held in Atlanta. I took part in two rather different parts of the event: physical robot football with the University of Newcastle’s NUbots, and development work around RoboCup’s three-dimensional simulation.

NUbots and the AIBOs

In 2007 the Sony AIBO competition was still officially the Four-Legged Robot League. It became the Standard Platform League the following year, when every team moved to the Aldebaran Nao.

NUbots finished as world runners-up in Atlanta, behind Northern Bites and ahead of CMDash’07. The official 2007 results (External link) preserve the full tournament record.

Photographs eight and nine show a bear-like prototype from the Newcastle robotics group, not an AIBO. Related platform work is documented in a 2006 proposal (External link) for a modular AIBO successor. The paper was authored by Stephan K. Chalup, Michael Dickinson, Robin Fisher, Richard H. Middleton, Michael J. Quinlan, and Peter Turner.

The 3D development competition

I also entered the 3D Simulation Development Competition and came first. The result is recorded in the University of Newcastle’s 2007 annual report (External link).

My recollection is that the entry centred on the Ogre3D visualisation and monitor I had built around SimSpark. I have not yet found a surviving contemporary result sheet that names the entry itself, so that detail remains identified here as recollection rather than documentary fact.

Selected photographs

  1. Robots playing football on a green RoboCup pitch

    The RoboCup competition field.

  2. Overhead view of Sony AIBO robot dogs competing on a marked football pitch

    The Four-Legged Robot League field.

  3. Team members attending to Sony AIBO robot dogs beside the football field

    Preparing the robots between matches.

  4. RoboCup trophies arranged in front of the lectern before the award ceremony

    Before the RoboCup 2007 award ceremony.

  5. Members of a Carnegie Mellon University RoboCup team on the award stage, with Manuela Veloso at right

    A Carnegie Mellon University team on the award stage, with Manuela Veloso at right.

  6. Members of the NUbots team on stage with their RoboCup 2007 runner-up trophy

    NUbots with the Four-Legged Robot League runner-up trophy.

  7. Small humanoid robots gathered around a football during a RoboCup match

    Humanoid robots contesting the ball.

  8. Close view of a white Newcastle robot-bear prototype, with animated eyes on internal screens

    A bear-like robot prototype from the Newcastle robotics group.

  9. A researcher working on the white Newcastle robot-bear prototype

    Work on the Newcastle robot-bear prototype.

RoboCup 2007, Atlanta. Photographs © Oliver Obst. Select an image to view the original.