The Super Team for new robots from Monterotondo places first.
C’è un calcio azzurro che dà ancora soddisfazioni a tutti gli appassionati e ai “tifosi di conoscenza”. È il calcio robotico! La squadra “Let it Beep” dell’Istituto Piazza della Resistenza di Monterotondo, in provincia di Roma, torna vittoriosa dalla RoboCup, i mondiali di robotica a Eindhoven che si sono conclusi domenica scorsa. Robert Boubreaz, Lorenzo Ederli e Roberto Zanni, accompagnati dal loro mentore, il professore Giampaolo Pucci, conquistano il primo posto nella categoria Super Team dopo quattro giorni di sfide appassionanti, con alti e bassi.
I tre studenti hanno gareggiato nella categoria Soccer Open che prevede robot più grandi, dotati di una visione computerizzata più sofisticata perché giocano con una pallina da golf arancione che non emette luce infrarossa come nell’altra categoria. Questo richiede un maggiore lavoro di rilevamento, spostando l'attenzione dalla meccanica al software. I due robot in campo erano alla loro esordio ai mondiali, perché sono stati interamente costruiti, programmati e allenati per la RoboCup.
Ma come si arriva a un risultato così importante? Giampaolo Pucci ci ha sintetizzato le giornate mondiali in un diario formato WhatApp che ha condiviso con la nostra Eleonora Curatola. A leggerlo tutto d'un fiato si ha l’impressione di essere teletrasportati sui campi di gara per vivere da vicino le stesse sfide emozionati, imprevisti compresi.
Buona lettura!
Day One
So, we met the European champions from Slovenia, and they beat us. We also lost the following match against Croatia, also because the referees were wearing orange t-shirts, the same colour as the golf ball used to play! And given the size and shape, the robots preferred to aim for the coaches’ bellies.
Our third adversary did not show up, so we automatically won the game and got an extra two hours to recalibrate our cameras (two on each robot) and filter out the referees’ t-shirts.
Our last match of the day was against the Trinity School from New York. After going under by 17 goals, they pulled out. They really weren’t very good. On our second day, we had a further four matches and a technical interview.
Day Two
The first match was against the Chinese from Macao, a team at the top of the rankings against whom we lost. Then we met the Korean team and won.
Then, it was the turn of our friends from Grosseto who won the Italian Championship in Verbania and it was the best match. Unfortunately, they won by one goal. Finally, we played against Taiwan, and we won without any major problems.
In practice, we were in mid-table for single matches and the interview went very well.
The organization provides all teams with a module allowing the robots to communicate for the following days' races. Let's hope so because it's an absolute novelty.
On day three, we began the team games, which are played on a very large field.
Day Three
Our partners were the Iranian, Japanese, and Dutch teams. Communication worked well and our robot played as goalie. We lost the first match by one goal but won all the others.
On day four, the final is at 9:00 am.
Day Four
On Sunday, buses leave late, and it was too far to walk. The Slovaks, who were at the same hotel as us, had the same problem, so we decided to call a taxi van together to minimize costs (in Holland everything is very expensive). We arrived on time and started the game. The first half was very balanced, but we managed to score a goal: 1 to 0 for us.
In the second half, which was very hard fought, we scored two more goals and so, after the European Championship, we also won the World Super Team Championship
Champions!
The Sky over Eindhoven is Blue!
