Carpe Noctem - Collaborative Autonomous Soccer Robots

28.10.2010, Wilhelmshöher Allee 73, 0413, 17:00

RoboCup is an international research project focussing on robotics, artificial intelligence and related fields. RoboCup tournaments are an important means of evaluation and proof of concept for new research approaches in these fields. The University of Kassel participates with its team "Carpe Noctem" since 2006 successfully in the RoboCup research effort. In this talk the Carpe Noctem team will give an overview on its robotic architecture and present its main research areas. The high dynamics of the soccer domain require a sophisticated model of cooperation for the team to adapt in real-time to changing situations. The problem is tackled using a modelling language and execution framework called ALICA, developed at the Distributed System Group. In order to support complex strategies and coherent teamwork, data fusion and abstraction become highly important. We will show how the team of robots, acting as a distributed system of autonomous entities, handles noisy and error-prone data, such as opponent position estimates. The performance of the robots is greatly improved by the application of machine learning techniques to low-level skills and behaviours. Some of these will be presented. Finally, we will give an outlook on Carpe Noctem's next generation robots.