A crew of mechanical engineers from Virginia Tech will become the first team in the United States this year to qualify for and compete in the humanoid division of the Robocup competition held at Georgia Tech this July.
DARwIn 2 is a 60 cm tall, four kilogram soccer-playing robot, and it will compete against other humanoid robots in a two-on-two soccer game, penalty kick challenge and technical skill challenges.
DARwIn is a humanoid robot that is capable of performing motions like a human being. It is one of the many robots that are developed at the Virginia Tech Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory founded by Dennis Hong, professor of mechanical engineering.
“(DARwIn) is not a toy, it is a serious, sophisticated type of machinery,” Hong said. “It is the most advanced humanoid robot in this class (of robots).”
DARwIn 0, the first model, was created by Hong as a way to showcase the university’s motors. After coming to teach at Virginia Tech, Hong used the same idea of a small, humanoid robot as a senior design project for mechanical engineers.
“All mechanical engineers have to do a senior design project that starts in the fall and ends in the spring,” said Laurence O’Neill, senior mechanical engineer major, and a member of the team that will take DARwIn to the Robocup.
Last year, the group of seniors chosen to work with Hong for their senior design project developed DARwIn 1, a more developed version of Hong’s original. This year, Hong is advising a new senior design team that has created DARwIn 2, an even more developed version of the humanoid robot.
“Last year’s (robot) was made out of sheets of aluminum, so we took the sheets and bent them like paper,” said Karl Muecke, a graduate researcher and co-advisor of the humanoid design team. “This year, we used blocks of aluminum, more like working with clay; so clay you can put into anything you want as opposed to paper, which you have to fold.”
O’Neill said DARwIn 2, this year’s model, is more human-like than last year’s model. He said that there are three different design models for DARwIn 2; DARwIn 2a is the model that was made by the design team first semester, DARwIn 2b is made with better motors and a removable computer and DARwIn 2c has not been developed but will be almost the same as 2b.
The robot is programmed by a program called Lab View. It uses a fixed camera and a moving camera to find objects using color recognition. Once it finds the ball, it is programmed to give the best kick possible, and if there are others approaching, to kick it faster.
“It has a full computer inside of it that is about as powerful as probably our laptops, and just as much memory if not more than most computers,” Muecke said.
Along with designing and creating the robot, this year the team also had a goal to meet the requirements and qualify for the Robocup. Robocup is an international competition aimed to promote artificial intelligence, robotics and related fields. The ultimate goal of Robocup is to develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world soccer champion team.
“Last year, it was in Germany and the world cup was in Germany so it received a lot of hype,” Muecke said.
Muecke said humanoid robotics doesn’t have as big of a following in the United States as it does on other parts of the world so by coming to the
U.S. this year, he hopes Robocup will generate interest in robotics as a whole and specifically humanoid robotics. The other divisions besides humanoid robots include simulation, small-sized, middle-sized and four-legged.
“Robocup was not our goal,” Hong said of this year’s design team. “This is a spin-off which is taking off like crazy.”
DARwIn is now receiving a lot of attention in the robotics world, after being on the cover of Servo magazine, a magazine dedicated to robotics. It also received a visit from the British Broadcasting Channel, which is interested in making a documentary about the robot for the Discovery Channel.
For Hong, however, his students’ enthusiasm is the most exciting part of the project’s development.
“I am blessed with a fascinated group of students, they are working hard not because I told them to, but because it is fun and exciting,” Hong said.
Hong explained that a major part of the RoMeLa is for undergraduate students to develop robots as a platform for graduate student’s research and in turn get to work with graduate students.
O’Neill expressed his excitement about his senior design project by saying that it is the most work he has had this semester, but it is fun, and he doesn’t mind working so much on it.
“(Virginia Tech’s) real soccer team is getting better and doing really well in the ACC this year,” O’Neill said. “Imagine what a robot soccer team can do.”
Muecke said that if a robot is built like a human being, it could potentially do anything a human being can do.
“If (robotics) gets advanced enough, they can act as a service to the disabled,” Muecke said. “If you have a robot that is just like a human in dexterity and size, they can do everything you can — they can vacuum the floor and potentially even make you breakfast.”
Resources:
Romela Darwin Presentation Video >
Romela - RoboCup Online> 
