The crowd roared as the players dribbled toward the goalkeeper, fighting for control of the soccer ball.
Robotic players, that is.
Metallic paws clashed as miniature programmed lions showcased robotics and artificial intelligence progress through soccer matches in the Sony Legged Robot League. The games were part of RoboCup2001, a heated international competition featuring various types of robotic athletes in a wide range of categories.
The competition is held annually to help foster technological improvements in personal and mobile robotics. The tournament, which was held last summer in Seattle, involved 16 teams from all over the world, including teams representing France and Japan.
Led by Mechanical Engineering Professor James Ostrowski, the Penn RoboCup team -- known as the UPennalizers -- was comprised of Engineering graduate students Sachin Chitta and Aveek Das as well as Bill Sacks, a Williams College student who participated in Penn's SUNFEST program. In this year's competition, the UPennalizers placed third in the main competition and second in the technical challenges category.
Each team competed in a three-on-three match, fielding a goalkeeper and two attackers. The robots' coordination and technical capabilities were put to the test as they tried to score against their foes.
Having had experience in previous RoboCup competitions, the UPennalizers returned this year with a unique advantage.
The Upennalizer robots "had the ability to communicate with each other through our use of audio signals, using beats to say things like 'I have the ball,'" Ostrowski said.
A combination of graduate and undergraduate students -- mostly seniors working on their senior design projects -- developed the different components of the robotic lions, ranging from their kicking skills to communication abilities.
Programming the robots to move more like humans in a soccer game presented numerous challenges. Coordination problems arose due to the robots' limited sensory capabilities.
The human team prepared for the competition through weekly meetings and discussions and continuous hard work on the various components of the robots. The robots then took on a team from Carnegie Mellon University in a preseason scrimmage as a tune-up for the actual competition.
"We felt pretty confident of doing well as we had developed our software architecture design in a structured way," Das said.
Penn's performance in the competition this year can be credited to a little bit of luck and "good people working on the project and developing high-level strategies," Ostrowski said.
"In the past, the breaks we had were negative and tough," Ostrowski said. "This year, we had a good break at the right time and it worked the right way. The luck of the draw was also a factor."
The RoboCup competitors have made tremendous strides since the tournament was first held five years ago. According to Ostrowski, the first year was "like watching five-year-olds playing soccer, a herd of robots moving in a pack and falling together, and now we're at a nine-year-old level."
RoboCup2002, which will take place in Japan, promises more excitement and changes while working towards its ultimate goal of developing robots that can compete effectively against human soccer teams.
Not only will the tournament be expanded to include more than 20 teams, the soccer field will also be enlarged and made more realistic. In addition, wireless internet communication between the robots will enhance the passage of information while changing the way the game is played.
