Press release - July 1, 2019
RoboCup WM 2019: B-Human aims to regain the title
This summer, the football robots of B-Human are also playing for the World Cup. In Sydney, the team supported by CONTACT Software is now competing against the world's best teams to win the RoboCup World Championship again.
B-Human - the team of the University of Bremen and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) - is the most successful one in the RoboCup Standard Platform League. In Australia, the reigning German Champion and Vice World Champion will fight from 2 to 8 July 2019 to bring the World Cup in robot football back home again.
Deep Learning
This year a new robot version is being used for the first time: the NAO V6. Its computing power is many times higher than that of its predecessor and enables the execution of particularly sophisticated algorithms. However, the software that each team develops itself is decisive for victory.
The declared goal of the RoboCup is to get closer and closer to the rules of human football. The game processes are becoming more and more demanding and require new algorithms adapted to the complexity. For example, the tournaments no longer take place in exhibition halls under constant artificial light, but preferably near large window fronts and thus under changing lighting conditions.
In order to master these difficult conditions for machine image processing, B-Human is increasingly using deep learning methods. The Bremen team will present its scientific work on this topic at the RoboCup Symposium following the World Championships.
Technical Challenge
In addition to the competition games, B-Human also takes part in the so-called Technical Challenge. This year's challenge is to locate the referee whistle correctly and as quickly as possible. In addition, the Bremen team will show how two NAOs lead a team colleague with "blindfolded eyes" - i.e. concealed cameras.
"B-Human has been playing at a consistently high level for years and has already become world champion six times," says Dr. Roland Drewinski, Head of Marketing at CONTACT Software. "We keep our fingers crossed that this will also work in 2019."
