Roberto Figueiredo is a Masters student at the University of Aveiro. He is a member of the Bold Hearts RoboCup team that competes in the Humanoid KidSize soccer league. He is currently the regional representative for Junior Rescue Simulation. We spoke to Roberto about his RoboCup journey from junior to major league and his experience at RoboCup events.
When was your first RoboCup event and what competition did you compete in?
I started in 2016 in the Junior League of High School and participated in a structural simulation competition (although I originally participated in a stage competition). This first event was actually in Portugal and was more like a workshop. We qualified for the Structural Simulation World Cup in Leipzig, Germany and came in second. It was really cool and was my first contact with RoboCup and robotics in general. I have done electronics in the past but simulations gave me a little bit of an introduction to the theoretical side of robotics and AI in general. Structural simulations make you think about how to make a robot independent and not have a human manually controlling it.
Roberto's first RoboCup appearance was in Leipzig in 2016. Here he is pictured with the Singapore team celebrating after the final.
Can you tell us about the RoboCup event you participated in later?
In 2017, we qualified to go to Nagoya, Japan, which was not only an amazing RoboCup, but also an amazing trip. Another great thing about robotics is that you get to meet a lot of new people in a new country. We did pretty well in that competition too, and I think we came in 5th.
Then we went to the European RoboCup Junior in Italy. The following year was my last RoboCup as a junior in Sydney. That was also interesting, and I got to talk to some of the major league players a little bit more and understand how their teams work. By then I had more experience and felt ready to join a major league RoboCup team.
There is a big gap between the junior league and the major league. When I joined the team (Bold Hearts), most of the team members had PhDs and I was a second year undergraduate student, so it was quite difficult to learn all the knowledge. However, if you are persistent and interested in robotics and passionate, you will learn the ropes and learn through trial and error.
EuroRoboCup 2022 in Portugal. Roberto (kneeling in the photo) was part of the organizing committee.
When did you first compete with a team in the major leagues?
Actually, my first competition was in Thailand last year. We didn't do as well as we wanted, but RoboCup is more than a competition. It's now an event to share science and knowledge, and that's unique. This year in Bordeaux, we had a problem with our robot. Every time we cut the Ethernet cable, the robot wouldn't play, and we couldn't figure out what was going on. We asked another team that was using the same software, and they figured it out before and showed us how to fix it. You don't see that in other competitions. Every team has a common goal of making scientific progress, building friendships, and sharing knowledge to make other teams better. It's really unique.
How did you come to join the Bold Hearts team?
I decided to do my Masters in the UK (University of Hertfordshire) to experience a different country and different educational system. When I joined, I knew there was a team, so I was already looking forward to joining. After working for two years, I was finally able to compete as a team. It was an amazing time and a great learning experience.
What role do you play on the team?
In our team, everyone does a little bit of everything. We still have a lot of problems to solve on the hardware side and the software side. Right now, we're all computer scientists, so it's a little bit harder to work on the hardware side. So I do a little bit of everything, both AI and non-AI related problems. For example, I've done 3D modeling for robots, and I'm currently working on balance problems. We all work together to solve problems, so it's amazing to see a little bit of everything and learn from everyone. Robotics is a very multidisciplinary field. You can learn about all kinds of topics, like mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, machine learning, and general coding.
Bold Hearts' qualifying video for this year's RoboCup competition
Can you tell us about this year’s competition (held in Bordeaux)?
This year we were much better prepared than last year. Last year we had just come back from COVID and all the experienced members had left the team to finish their PhDs and start working. Building a successful robotics team is a huge integration problem. There are so many parts that have to work perfectly for the robot to work and if one fails it looks like the system is doing nothing. This year we had walking working perfectly, vision working well, a stable decision tree and could hear the controller (like a referee who relays information about fouls, play starting and stopping, etc). But then there was a bug in the decision tree and everything broke and we spent a lot of time debugging. This happens to a lot of teams. But you can still appreciate the work they did and the progress they made.
RoboCup 2023 in Bordeaux. Roberto (left) and members of the Bold Hearts team.
What are the team's immediate plans?
We are currently thinking about participating in a simulation competition that is part of the league. This competition is held in the winter, and we plan to participate in it for software work. The transition between simulation and hardware is very difficult. We need a good simulation base to directly transfer knowledge to the robot. We are trying to make the simulation very good so that we can transfer the knowledge learned from the simulation to the robot at least more easily.
RoboCup is moving towards AI and learning, and this can be seen in the 3D simulation. For example, the robot learns many movements through reinforcement learning. In a real league, it is not easy to transfer it to the real world where there is play in the joints, there is repulsion, there is play in the 3D part. There are many variables that are not considered in the simulation.
How has participating in RoboCup inspired your studies and research?
Every time I go to RoboCup, I come out thinking about what I'm going to do next. I can't be more inspired. It's a very intense field, but I love it. It makes me want to work really hard and it makes me passionate about science. I did my bachelor's project related to RoboCup, I did my master's in robotics, and I kept asking my professors if I wanted to start a team in Portugal. I'm going to write my master's thesis on robotics, humanoids. I think humanoids are a very complex and interesting challenge. There is no single solution.
About Roberto
Roberto Figueiredo is a Portuguese AI-focused computer scientist with a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Hertfordshire. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Aveiro and is passionate about furthering his expertise in robotics. He has been very passionate about robotics and AI for a long time and has been participating in RoboCup since 2016 in the Rescue Simulation league. He has since become a regional representative for the Portuguese Rescue League and joined Bold Hearts, a Major team in the most difficult Kid Size league in RoboCup Humanoid Soccer. |
Lucy Smith is the editor-in-chief of AIhub.
AIhub is a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting the AI community to the public by providing free, high-quality information about AI.
AIhub is a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting the AI community to the public by providing free, high-quality information about AI.