Berlin United - Nao Team Humboldt

SPL Qualifikations Video 2013

mellmann — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:26:28 +0000

In this video we briefly present the current state of our research on Nao related to RoboCup SPL. The main innovations for this year are our new, faster walk with dribbling capabilities; the new SimSpark simulator adapted for SPL, which is mainly used to develop and debug team behavior; and a much cleaner and stable code base (which is difficult to present in such a short video ;)

The price to get to Mexico

Paul — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 14:32:50 +0000

Marcus and his Coke

For those who are not into RoboCup: it´s world cup time in Mexico! But to participate one has to get there. Our team had to split, due to several reasons. So Marcus and I (Paul) decided to get there together. We wanted to get there cheaply. And the cheapest way to get to Mexico was via the U.S. of A! ESTA questionnaire, interrogations and complications with our Naos were preprogrammed…we were a little bit nervous. Berlin – Amsterdam – Atlanta – Mexico City also was a long trip. We had 2 Naos, one extra Head, two routers, three Laptops, kilometers of cables, 6 batteries and much more hardware to take with us.

Our best friend the ATM with 300 Euros

First flight – all right! But now 4 hours of waiting in Amsterdam. So what is the best thing you can do to get rid of time: internet of course and soft drinks! We found free internet for 30 minutes per computer and big Cokes . This was not enough, we had 4 hours, so we started to cheat to get more free access and it worked and hoped for even bigger Cokes in Atlanta. With Marcus Coke and free internet the time elapsed, and suddenly we were late. We had to rush to get to the right terminal and were the last for boarding.

Shopping center or casino

So after the quick interrogation of the security officers and the scanning of the boarding pass it happened: “Ahh, Mr. Scheunemann, Mr. Schütte would you please come with me?”. “NoooooOOOooOOoo” I thought “maybe there is a problem with our luggage…” But no! There was a problem with us: “We have news for you: we have changed your flight. You are now flying two hours later – directly to Mexico” Marcus and I started laughing. Perfect. No U.S. transfer. No arrival at midnight. Sit together, emergency exit seats… “Ah and I forgot to tell you the best thing: because of the overbooking, you can go to Terminal T6 and get your 300 Euros…” Muahahahaaha. Marcus and I could not stop celebrating. Did we understand right: We get 300 € for all the improvements?! Yes! Yes, yes yes! What do with all the money? Shopping? Casino?

Lots of space

Quesadilla, yummy

In the end we just enjoyed some beer and went to Mejico, olé! There came the last big challenge: get everything into the country without paying tax. And we made it: after having “nothing to declare”, everybody has to press a button. If the light is green, it´s fine, go on. But if it is red, every single bag must be opened and controlled and if the total is worth more than 400 us$ (with some exceptions) one has to pay taxes… I had the red light. Nevertheless Goddess Fortuna helped again: No problems, nothing to pay. More money for Quesadillas!

Praparations for the world cup

Scheune — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:40:16 +0000

So today our last strategy discussion before RoboCup took place. Actually, the team is prepared well 8-)

Final strategy discussions

At the clinic

Paul — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:25:04 +0000

Our robots´s are in Paris at the Nao clinic. For the first time in our team´s history we have sent them to Aldebaran so early. We hope that they will be ready for the RoboW. The good thing is that our simulator is almost ready, so we can keep working! Moreover the Naos are not only in Paris for repairing, but also for the headupgrade! Yes, you read right: H-E-A-D-U-P-G-R-A–D-E! Soon we will be able to process the whole image and not only some scanlines :)

IranOpen 2012

Denis — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:29:33 +0000

We arrived on thursday at 6 am in the morning. From the airport a member of the Iran Open picked us up and we got right to the convention hall for the “set up”. But set up wasn’t the thing, we had in mind. After sleeping for a few hours on the carpet and the desk, we just managed to write the tasks we had to do later. Just Paul and Micha did some work on the behavior in the night hours.

The second day was more productive but less easy going, because the problems increased exponentially: No nao had a stable walk and when they fell down, half of the robots couldn’t manage to stand up. After we figured out that one Nao had a broken food sensor and 2 couldn’t connect with the Soccer Server, we gave up and got to the hotel. On the second day we recognized, that another Nao had also a broken foot sensor, so we had to turn off the stabilizator module. At the end of the day all of them could connect to the Soccer Server, walk forward, more or less with difficulties and stand up. But we weren’t the only team with problems with the walk and broken robot parts. We won the first match versus the Greek guy 1:0. The second match versus the Dutch team was a drawn without goals.

The exhibition is a really big one, with big public interest and participation. So we get surrounded every time by a crowd of visitors asking questions and are interviewed by the press frequently. Today we lost a match against one of the Iran teams 1:0. And more bad news: one of the robot cricked of his head, he doesn’t boot and can’t turn his head left :(. Versus the Chinese Team we play a drawn, but the chinese played with only one player which couldn’t see nor walk, we had frequently no Players on the field because of the problems.

TLTD: Broken robots, Nao vs. Greek: 1:0, vs. Dutch: 0:0, vs. Iran1: 0:1, vs. China: 0:0. No working walk! Motivation down :(

Welcome to a new team member

Scheune — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:44:25 +0000

Due to the fact that four of our team members participate in Iran Open, there is now some space left in our lab. We decided to introduce another team member to fill the gap ;)

First game is over

Paul — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:39:27 +0000

We lost the first game 2-3. It was very close and we did look good. The only bad thing was that we played 80% of the time with only 3 robots and 30% with only two: Battery problems and a broken stick made our game impossible to win. After our 1:0 advantage we could make it again to 2:1. But again without four working robots you can´t beat the world´s #4: HTWK!

Anyway, we can play and we proved it :)

Schedule

Paul — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 08:59:02 +0000

In a few minutes we will have our first game. We are still waiting for our repaired robot from Aldebaran, so with bad luck, we can play with only 3 Naos :(
We play in a group with HTWK Leipzip and DAInamite. The complete schedule for all teams can be found at tzi.de

We will keep you up to date!

We arrived

Paul — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:49:32 +0000

This year we arrived as one of the first teams. We seem to be better prepared than the years before :D Without Marcus (who had an injury) and without Heinrich (who is going to Seattle) we are not having really a chance, but anyway, we are here, we are willed to win and we do not look that bad!

More infos soon!

(Deutsch) Infoabend 26.01 – 17:00

mellmann — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:26:14 +0000

Am Donnerstag den 26.01 um 17:00 findet in unserem Labor (RUD 25, Raum 3.110) ein Infoabend zu unseren Projekten und Aktivitäten rund um den Roboter Nao und den Roboterfußball statt. Dabei zeigen wir unsere Roboter in Aktion, stellen Themen vor an denen wir gerade arbeiten und außerdem erfährst du, wie du bei uns mitmachen kannst. Du kannst dazu einfach ganz unverbindlich vorbeikommen und unser Team kennenlernen, es lohnt sich auf jeden Fall!

Hier sind nochmal die wichtigsten Daten:
Donnerstag den 26.01 um 17:00
RUD 25, Haus III, Raum 110