RoboCup Soccer Leagues

RoboCup was created in 1996 by a group of Japanese, American, and European Artificial Intelligence and Robotics researchers with a formidable, visionary long-term challenge: “By 2050 a team of robot soccer players will beat the human World Cup champion team.” At that time, in the mid 90s, when there were very few effective mobile robots and the Honda P2 humanoid robot was presented to a stunning public for the first time also in 1996, the RoboCup challenge, set as an adversarial game between teams of autonomous robots, was fascinating and exciting. RoboCup enthusiastically and concretely introduced three robot soccer leagues, namely “Simulation,” “Small-Size,” and “Middle-Size,” as we explain below, and organized its first competitions at IJCAI’97 in Nagoya with a surprising number of 100 participants [RC97]. It was the beginning of what became a continously growing research community. RoboCup established itself as a structured organization (the RoboCup Federation www.RoboCup.org). RoboCup fosters annual competition events, where the scientific challenges faced by the researchers are addressed in a setting that is attractive also to the general public. and the RoboCup events are the ones most popular and attended in the research fields of AI and Robotics.RoboCup further includes a technical symposium with contributions relevant to the RoboCup competitions and beyond to the general AI and robotics

Missouri S&T Magazine Spring 2012

https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/alumni-magazine/1022/thumbnail.jp

Proceedings of the 4th field robot event 2006, Stuttgart/Hohenheim, Germany, 23-24th June 2006

Zeer uitgebreid verslag van het 4e Fieldrobotevent, dat gehouden werd op 23 en 24 juni 2006 in Stuttgart/Hohenhei

ViZDoom Competitions: Playing Doom from Pixels

This paper presents the first two editions of Visual Doom AI Competition, held in 2016 and 2017. The challenge was to create bots that compete in a multi-player deathmatch in a first-person shooter (FPS) game, Doom. The bots had to make their decisions based solely on visual information, i.e., a raw screen buffer. To play well, the bots needed to understand their surroundings, navigate, explore, and handle the opponents at the same time. These aspects, together with the competitive multi-agent aspect of the game, make the competition a unique platform for evaluating the state of the art reinforcement learning algorithms. The paper discusses the rules, solutions, results, and statistics that give insight into the agents' behaviors. Best-performing agents are described in more detail. The results of the competition lead to the conclusion that, although reinforcement learning can produce capable Doom bots, they still are not yet able to successfully compete against humans in this game. The paper also revisits the ViZDoom environment, which is a flexible, easy to use, and efficient 3D platform for research for vision-based reinforcement learning, based on a well-recognized first-person perspective game Doom

Impulse

College[Page] 2 Jerome J. Lohr For the College of Engineering, no one has left a larger impact than this 1958 alumnus. [Page] 6 Architecture, Mathematics, Engineering Construction began in August of a 60,000-square-foot building that will complete an ambitious time of facility improvements within the college.Students8 Brian & Jim Lawburgh These identical twins from Hendricks, Minn., also share common interests when working in the biofuels research laboratory at Crothers Engineering Hall. [Page] 10 Extracurricular engineers Engineers turn up in the darnest of places, like band practice (Austin VanderWal), theater (Brian Schulte), dance class (Alyssa Clemen), Hobo Day (Casey Janisch), and the art studio (Mackenzie Fahy). [Page] 12 Taylor Suess You might recognize him as a starting offensive lineman for the Jackrabbits, but he also is a top-end student and researcher in the mechanical engineering department. [Page] 13 Megan Waytashek The Lino Lakes, Minn., junior is expected to lead the SDSU women’s basketball team this season, but the 3.97 GPA scholar envisions a future in biomedical engineering. [Page] 14 Athletes and engineers Engineering students can be found in almost every sport that SDSU fields, and they’re doing much more than “just getting by” in the classroom. [Page] 15 A successful algorithm The Research Experience for Undergraduates program has been the pathway for opportunity for math major Chris Galbraith. [Page] 16 Undergraduate research Ryan Hahn has used his first taste of undergraduate research to crunch numbers from a government satellite, expand his knowledge and earn a check. [Page] 17 Paid in full May graduate Caitlin Gerdes is pursuing her master’s in mechanical engineering at State on a $30,000 per year award from the National Science Foundation. [Page] 18 Student competitions Whether its a racecar, a robot or a concrete canoe, students find contests a fun way to apply their classroom learning and experience teamwork.[Page] 20 Senior design projects This capstone class not only puts application to countless courses, it can also lead to a patent as students at last year’s Engineering Expo discovered. [Page] 22 Living Learning Communities Engineering students living and studying with other engineering students continues to pay dividends. [Page] 24 Engineers Without Borders The fourth trip by students from this group to Carmen Pampa, Bolivia, included an old friend and students from his new school. [Page] 26 Trevor Layh The mechanical engineering graduate from Winner becomes the sixth SDSU student to receive the$10,000 Tau Beta Pi fellowship for graduate study. [Page] 27 National winners Students from several disciplines earn national scholarships. [Page] 28 Scholarship dollars In a decade, the value of scholarships given to SDSU engineering students has almost tripled to $1.4 million for the 2010-11 school year. [Page] 30 Faculty farewells/news Alfred & Madeleine Andrawis, Bruce Berdanier say goodbye. [Page] 31 Alumni newshttps://openprairie.sdstate.edu/coe_impulse/1060/thumbnail.jp

Robot Localization for FIRST Robotics

The goal of this project was to develop a camera-based system that can determine coordinates of multiple robots during FIRST Robotics Competition game play and transmit this information to the robots. The intent of the system is to introduce an interesting new dynamic to the competition. To accomplish this, robots are fitted with custom matrix LED beacons. Six cameras capture images of the field while an FPGA embedded system at each camera performs image processing to identify the beacons. This information is then sent to a central PC which combines the six images to reconstruct the robots’ coordinates. This effort included implementation of location algorithms, imaging simulation, design of the FPGA processor and algorithms, beacon system and custom hardware for prototype deployment

IMSA360: April 2008

Message From the President As a long-time educator in Illinois, I have admired IMSA’s role as an international leader in developing talent and leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). I am honored and privileged to now serve as IMSA’s second president. This first year, I have been meeting with educational leaders and policy makers across Illinois as well as IMSA students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni and donors to solicit ideas and determine our critical needs. From these conversations, I am convinced that IMSA’s service to students, teachers and schools is more relevant and important than ever. The challenges we face in the 21st century will need to be addressed by the talents and contributions of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs. Working as real partners in dynamic networks, we can and must ensure that Illinois students have accomplished teachers, supportive mentors and resources to support effective STEM education. Excerpt: From the President of IMS

And the Winner Is...Capturing the Promise of Philanthropic Prizes

Philanthropists and governments have long used prizes to drive innovation and engagement to produce societal benefit, but the use of this powerful instrument is undergoing a renaissance. Philanthropic prizes are growing in number and size, are appearing in new forms, and are being applied to a wider range of societal objectives by a wider range of sponsors than ever before. Not all of the growth has been positive, however, as the many overlapping prizes and growing clutter of the sector attests. In response, current and potential participants are asking when they should use prizes, and how they can develop and deliver effective ones. This report addresses these questions by drawing on academic literature, interviews with analysts and practitioners, surveys of prize sponsors and competitors, databases of small and large awards, and case studies of twelve effective prizes to produce lessons from a range of sectors, goals, and prize types. It aims to help improve current prizes and stimulate effective future use by developing a number of simple frameworks and compiling useful lessons for sponsors. While targeting the philanthropic sponsor, we believe these perspectives will also be helpful to governments and corporations considering prizes. Our research found that prizes are a unique and powerful tool that should be in the basic toolkit of many of today's philanthropists. Their recent renaissance is largely due to a new appreciation for the multiple ways in which they can produce change: not only by identifying new levels of excellence and by encouraging specific innovations, but also by changing wider perceptions, improving the performance of communities of problem-solvers, building the skills of individuals, and mobilizing new talent or capital. These change drivers give prize sponsors compelling opportunities to use the open, competitive, and media-friendly attributes of prizes to stimulate attention and drive innovation in a highly leveraged and result-focused way. Recent prize growth is reinforced by powerful external trends such as the arrival of new philanthropic wealth, different attitudes to shifting risk, interest in open source approaches, and an increasingly networked, media-driven and technology-intensive world. We believe that the outlook for prizes is particularly strong because of the increased interest of philanthropists and the emergence of an industry of prize facilitators that is driving improvements in prize economics and improved practices for managing execution challenges and risks

Volume 2013 - Issue 2 - Spring, 2013

https://scholar.rose-hulman.edu/rose_echoes/1083/thumbnail.jp

The Effects of Science Research Based Competitions on High School Students' Responses to Science

The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of Science Research Based Competitions (SRBCs) on high school students’ responses to science. SRBCs were primarily designed to develop students’ interest in science, their motivation for science learning and their science reasoning in order to provide a platform for students to show potential for carrying out research in science. But, despite their popularity, little research has so far been undertaken to evaluate the effects of SRBCs. The study explores the effects of SRBCs on students’ responses to science from the perspective of three different groups of people: key informants (government staff, SRBC funders), teachers and students. A series of case studies was carried out in six residential schools in Malaysia. Data were gathered from four key informants, six teachers and 360 sixteen-year-old student participants, divided into six groups, in Form 4 of secondary school. Students’ responses to science were explored in a number of ways. Data on attitudes towards science were gathered through the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) questionnaire, and the findings are compared with those of the ROSE National Survey Data for Malaysia carried out in 2004. Additional data were gathered through interviews with students and from student diaries. Students in residential schools showed more positive responses to science in a number of areas when compared with the ROSE National Survey Data. In particular, students expressed a preference for jobs which favoured recognition after accomplishing challenges, and which offered creative tasks. In contrast, they shared similar views to those found in the national survey towards school science. The study indicates that SRBCs deepen students’ interest in pursuing science and create an ability to apply knowledge which is related to it. The students reported that science is much more enjoyable when it involves autonomous learning and research activity. Students were influenced by their mentors (the teachers running the SRBCs in their schools), the types of project and the degree of external involvement. The teachers reported positive developments in their students’ science processing skills, and their knowledge and awareness of science in general. The students also developed confidence in time management, communication and handling stress along with the project. This represents a revealing insight into the views of the three main components of SRBCs; the organisers/sponsors, the practitioners and the participants