Intelligence System for the 2001 RoboRoos Team

Student: David Michael Ball

Supervisor: Dr. Gordon Wyeth

Category: Computer Systems Engineering Thesis Project

The University of Queenslands RoboRoos Robot Soccer Team competes in the small size league of the annual RoboCup competitions. The soccer robots have a maximum diameter of 180mm and play with a golf ball on a table tennis size field. The robots are completely autonomous, no human control is allowed. There is an emphasis in RoboCup on research into autonomous navigation and multi-agent cooperation. In 2001 the RoboRoos were completely redesigned mechanically to include omnidirectional drive and a 5m/s kicking mechanism. Omnidirectional drive allows the RoboRoos extreme agility through 3 independent degrees of freedom.

This thesis details the changes made to the RoboRoos intelligence system in 2001. The intelligence system is made up of the Multi-Agent Planning System (MAPS), a command execution system and a reactive navigation system. The robot's electrical hardware which features Motorola's MC68332 32 bit microcontroller was also updated. The system works and competed well in the 2001 world competition in Seattle. They also compete well against human teams using remote controlled robots. Towards the end of this thesis the teams performance is analysed and possible future redesign of software and hardware is offered.

The photo is of the RoboRoos team competing in the World RoboCup competition in Seattle in August 2001. It shows MAPS coordinating the RoboRoos team.

Come and see the RoboRoos in action at Innovation Expo. And if you are game enough, pit your intelligence and skill against them using remote controlled robots and Microsoft Gamepads. No human team has yet defeated them!

Poster Presentation (PDF)

Thesis Document (PDF)