NUI Maynooth to Showcase Ireland’s Robotic Soccer Team

 

Demonstration will take place from 2pm - 4pm on Friday 8th June. Booking is essential*

 

NUI Maynooth will provide a public display of Ireland’s Robot Soccer team, ‘RoboEireann’, which was runner up at the recent 2012 German Open, the annual European Robot Soccer competition. RoboEireann comprises students and staff from the Department of Electronic Engineering and Department of Computer Science at NUI Maynooth.

RoboCup is an international research initiative aimed at advancing the state of the art in intelligent autonomous robotics. RoboEireann competes in the Standard Platform League where all teams use identical humanoid robot hardware but must develop software that enables the robots to understand their surroundings, make decisions, and coordinate their behaviour without human intervention or remote control. Video footage of RoboEireann is available to view here http://youtu.be/5Ut0nBh4piY

The German Open competition, which in 2012 featured 38 teams from 12 nations, involves soccer playing robots pitting their skills against each other, just like their human counterparts will in the upcoming European Football Championship.  The competition format, like the European Football Championship, has a group stage followed by knock-out rounds. RoboEireann overcame teams from Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Germany before eventually succumbing to the world champions, B-Human of Germany, in the final.

Discussing the public event, Rudi Villing, team coach and lecturer in the NUI Maynooth Electronic Engineering Department said: “The event is free to attend and anybody who has an interest in robotics, engineering or even just soccer might find it interesting. While the game isn’t played at the speed of human soccer, there is a huge amount of work and expertise designed into each move the robots make. Like standard soccer, we have referees, fouls, sendings off and penalties – so each game can be very eventful. If you can’t make it to the European Championships in Poland this year, I’d encourage anybody with an interest to come along to our event.”

*The demonstration will take place from 2pm – 4pm on Friday 8th June in the Hamilton Institute (located in Rye Hall on the North Campus at NUI Maynooth).  The event is free for anyone to attend, but spaces are limited and booking is essential by e-mailing electronic.engineering@eeng.nuim.ie

The RoboEireann team gratefully acknowledges the financial support for the research and outreach activities provided by Science Foundation Ireland through its UREKA Programme Summer Internship in Autonomous Robotics.

Ends      01 June 2012

For more information please contact:

Deirdre Watters  NUI Maynooth                  +353 1 708 6160

Dr Rudi Villing     NUI Maynooth                   +353 1 708 6328