Project: NimbRo - Learning Humanoid Robots

RoboCup 2011, Istanbul

11.7.2011

At the 15th RoboCup International Symposium, the paper Jörg Stückler and Sven Behnke: "Compliant Task-Space Control with Back-Drivable Servo Actuators" received the Best Paper Award.

10.7.2011

We won both, the Humanoid Soccer TeenSize tournament and also the @Home competition.

In the @Home final, we used both robots. Cosero carried a table, together with a person who guided the robot by pulling and pushing the table. Cosero also turned on the cooking plate, fetched some egg dow and poured it into a pan to make an omelet. In the meanwhile, Dynamaid got a bottle of orange juice from the fridge. This performance was awarded the highest score from all three parts of the jury. Together with the top score from Stage II, this resulted in an optimal 300 points.

In the TeenSize final, our robots Dynaped and Bodo met the team KMUTT from Thailand. The Taiwanese team had a good defense. Nevertheless, the score was 6:0 at half time. The game ended early at a score of 10:0 for our team.

9.7.2011

Our soccer robots continued with round robin games and met again team KMUTT from Thailand. They improved their play. In particular, the KMUTT goalie jumped reliably and saved many goals. Hence, the result was only 8:0 for our team. The second game vs. AcYut 4 from India was won by our robots 10:0.
In @Home league, the General Purpose Service Robot test went very well. Our robot Cosero understood complex speech commands, fetched the requested object, and was not confused by a command to fetch an object that was not at the specified location. In the Demo Challenge, Cosero cleaned the appartment. A human could show the robot where white and colored loundry was to be put and the robot collected some clothes. It also cleaned up other objects and put them at their place. This was awarded with the highest number of points of all remaining 12 teams. After Stage II, our team is leading with some distance, followed by WrightEagle from China.

8.7.2011

In the General Purpose Service Robot test, Cosero partially understood a complex command and went to the correct place. The Go-Get-It test went well. Cosero found a known object and delivered it. In the Shopping Mall test, Cosero had severe difficulties with speech recognition. Hence, it could not take the order which items should be shopped and received only partial points.
Our soccer robots had to show their skills in the technical challenge. Dynaped dribbled the ball sucessfully between multiple obstacles. Together with Bodo, it completed the Double Pass Challenge half way.

7.7.2011

In the TeenSize soccer round robin, our robots Dynaped and Bodo won the first game 9:0 vs. KMUTT from Thailand. Our team also won the second game vs. AcYut 4 from India 10:0.

In the @Home league, Cosero demonstrated in the Follow-Me test that he can follow a previously unknown person, recognize gestures and distinguish this person from another person. Due to the noisy environment, Cosero had some difficulties to understand names in the Who-is-Who test. Nevertheless, our robot detected and recognized four persons correctly. In the Open Challenge, Cosero prepared a breakfast. It opened a bottle, poured milk in a bowl and fetched a spoon. This performance was rewarded with the highes number of points of all teams.

6.7.2011

Our team NimbRo participates at RoboCup 2011, which takes place at the Expo Center in Istanbul.
We compete in the Humanoid TeenSize League, where our robots won the competitions in 2009 and 2010. We also participate in the @Home League, where we reached a second place in 2010 and won German Open 2011.
In the evening, our @Home robots Dynamaid and Cosero registered themselves for the competition in the Robot Inspection and Poster Session test. They reached the highest number of points of all 19 teams in this test.

RoboCup German Open 2011, Magdeburg

3.4. 2011

Our Robots Cosero and Dynamaid won the @Home league!

In the final, our robots prepared a breakfast. Cosero opened a milk bottle, poured out the milk over the cereal bowl, and threw away the bottle in the thrash bin. In the meanwhile, Dynamaid got the orange juice from the fridge. Cosero also could fetch a spoon, which had been placed in arbitrary position on a table. Finally, the robot recognized a pointing gesture of a jury member showing the exit door. SmartBots (Ulm) came in second, b-it-bots (Sankt Augustin) reached third place.

Our SPL robots played well in the final, but B-Human had clear advantages. Consequently, the game ended 6:1 for B-Human. In the morning, Prof. Behnke was elected as chair of the German National Committee RoboCup.

2.4.2011

In the @Home league, our robot Cosero performed the Enhanded Who is Who test, the Shopping Mall test, and the Demo Challenge. Im Shopping Mall test, our robot learned the map of a previously unknown environment, was introduced to objects and delivered two of the three requested objects. In the Demo Challenge, Cosero recognized objects, interpreted pointing gestures and tiedied up the appartment by moving objects into shelfes.
Our SPL robots won their two games in the second round robin against Noxious (University of Wales) and Bemblebots (University of Frankfurt) with 6:0. In the Semi final, they met RoboEireann (University of Ireland). The game ended at 10:0 for NimbRo.
Tomorrow, the final will again be played vs. B-Human.

1.4.2011

In the @Home league, Cosero got the most points in the Who is Who test by finding five persons. It got the second most points in the Open Challenge. Dynamaid was the only robot to score in the General Purpose Robot Test II.
Our Nao robots met HWTK Leipzig in the second round robin. Both teams played well and the game was exciting. After 2:2 at half time, our robots won the game 4:2.

31.3.2011

We participate at RoboCup German Open in Magdeburg in the Standard Platform League (SPL) with Nao soccer robots and in the @Home league with the service robots Cosero and Dynamaid. The home robots had to show their skills in the Stage 1 tests Robot Inspection and Poster Session, Follow Me und Go Get It!. The SPL robots met in the first round robin Nao Devils (TU Dortmund, 4:0) and coolRUNners (Uni Rostock, 9:0).

NimbRo vs. coolRUNners aaa

RoboCup 2010, Singapore

24.6.2010

In the TeenSize final, our robots Dynaped and Bodo met the team CIT Brains from Japan. Bodo played as a goalie and Dynaped was the field player. Dynaped was very quick to approach the ball, to dribble it across the field and to kick it reliably towards the CIT goal. Although CIT had a good goalie that could catch some kicks, NimbRo scored one goal after the other. Consequently, the half-time score was 8:0 and the game ended prematurely, three minutes into the second half, at the score of 10:0 for NimbRo. Hence, our TeenSize robots won the first soccer tournament in this size class. They were also voted Best Humanoid from the team leaders of the entire Humanoid league (34 teams), and the president of the RoboCup Federation.

In the @Home League final, Dynamaid recognized an object showing gesture and the object shown to her. She also went to the fridge, opened the fridge door, and grasped a can of beer. Afterwards, she closed the fridge again and delivered the drink. [Video] Finally, our robot went to a shelf to get some snack. In the final ranking, the Japanese team Er@ser was still ahead of NimbRo. NimbRo won the second place in the @Home League. [Best-of Video]

23.6.2010
In TeenSize, our team met CIT Brains from Japan in the last round-robin game. Dynaped and Bodo played very well and won 8:2. After winning all round-robin games, NimbRo met Robo-Erectus in the semi-final. The game ended after seven minutes with a score of 10:0 for NimbRo. Tomorrow, our robots will meet the same team as last year, CIT Brains, in the final.
In the @Home League, Dynamaid did very well in the Shopping Mall test. This test was conducted in a real toy store. Our robot learned a map of the environment, remembered the location of multiple objects and then went to collect a requested object. [Video] In the Enhanced-Who-is-Who test, our robot learned the appearance and the names of three persons. One of these persons was recognized later when ordering drinks. In the Demo Challenge, Dynamaid successfully recognized pointing gestures, recognized objects shown to her, and picked-up objects from the floor that she deposited in a thresh bin. After completing all Stage II, tests NimbRo had the second most points in the overall ranking, next only to to the Japanese team Er@sers.

In SPL, our robots played their third game of the second round robin vs. Cerberus from Turkey. Our robots had a clear advantage. The final score was 3:0 for NimbRo. With these results, NimbRo wins group L of the second round robin. In the quarter final, our robots met the team CMurfs from CMU. The game ended 2:1 for CMurfs.

22.6.2010
In TeenSize, Dynaped excelled in the technical challenge. It was the fastest robot in the foot race and the only robot to complete the obstacle dribbling challenge.
In SPL, our team met Nao-Team HTWK from Leipzig in the first game of the second round robin. The exiting game ended 3:2 for NimbRo. NimbRo met also the Austrian Kangaroos from Vienna and won the game 4:2.
In the @Home League, Dynamaid performed very well in the Open Challenge. She recognized gestures, got something to eat and to drink for a guest and picked-up an object from the floor. After Stage I, NimbRo is second in the overall ranking, next only to team Er@sers from Japan. In the General-Purpose-Service-Robot test, Dynamaid recognized complex commands and asked for clarification in underspecified commands.

21.6.2010
In the @Home League, Dynamaid did the FollowMe test perfectly. During the test, she successfully recognized stop gestures. After the GoGetIt test, NimbRo still has the highest total number of points.
In TeenSize, our robots met Tsinghua Hephaestus from China. This first 2 vs. 2 game in the TeenSize class ended 9:2 for NimbRo. In the second round robin game, NimbRo met the local team Robo-Erectus. The game ended prematurely at a score of 10:0 for NimbRo.
In the SPL, NimbRo played the first game with Kouretes from Greece and won 8:0. NimbRo also won the second round robin match 4:0 vs. NTU Robot PAL from Taiwan.

20.6.2010
Our team participates at the RoboCup 2010 competition in Singapore in the TeenSize class of the Humanoid League, where we use the robots Dynaped and Bodo, in the Standard-Platform League (SPL), where Nao robots are used, and in the @Home League, where we use Dynamaid. In the first test, Dynamaid registered herself successfully for the competition while the team poster was presented. NimbRo reached the highest number of points for this test.

ICRA Mobile Manipulation Challenge, Anchorage, Alaska

5.5.2010
Our robot Dynamaid participated in the ICRA Mobile Manipulation Challenge. It fetched an object requested by the user by means of a pointing gesture. The user could also request a drink by showing it to the robot. Finally, Dynamaid collected an object from the table and moved it towards a trash bin. [Video]

RoboCup German Open 2010, Magdeburg

Our team participated in the Standard Platform League (SPL) and in the @Home League at the RoboCup German Open competition in Magdeburg. Our TeenSize humanoid soccer robots showed demos. [Soccer Video] [@Home Video]

18.4.2010
In the @Home final, Robotinho greeted a guest and guided him to a table.
There, the guest could select something to eat using a pointing gesture.
Also, the guest ordered a drink by showing it to Dynamaid. Overall, NimbRo reached the second place in the @Home league.
In the SPL league, NimbRo met B-Human, the current world champion, in the final. The exciting game was open for a long time. After 2:1 for NimbRo at half time, B-Humen scored four more goals for a final score of 5:2. Hence, NimbRo reached the second place in the SPL league, which is a big success, given that the team got their first robots only two months prior the competition.

17.4.2010
In the morning, our SPL robots won 2:0 against the Humboldt team from Berlin.
At noon, they played their last round robin game 2:0 against RoboEireann from Ireland. As the winner of our group they met the second team from the other group, Austrian Kangaroos from Vienna, in the semi-final. Our robots won the game 3:1 and advanced to the final.
Dynamaid performed well in the Enhanced-Who-is-Who test. Robotinho and Dynamaid cooperated in the Demo Challenge.

16.4.2010
The SPL robots played their second round robin game with Frankfurt Bembelbots and won 2:0. In the second sound robin pool, they met Les Trois Mousquetaires from Paris and won 3:0.
In the @Home league, Dynamaid detected and reconized all pesons in the Who-is-Who test. Dynamaid interpreted pointing gestures correctly in the Open Challenge.

15.4.2010
The SPL robots met in their first game HWTK Leipzig and won 3:0. Our domestic service robot Dynamaid had a major electrical problem that burned many of its servo controller boards.

Deutsches Museum Bonn

23.1.2010
Our communication robot Robotinho is tested in the Deutsches Museum Bonn. As a tour guide, it explains three of our robots and three permanent exhibits. [Video]

RoboCup 2009, Graz

6.7.2009
Our Robots won the TeenSize Competitions in the Humanoid League!
After winning the semi-final 3:0 against HWM (Villach, Austria), our robot Dynaped met the robot from CIT Brains (Japan) in the final of the TeenSize Dribble-an-Kick tournament. Dynaped dribbled the ball reliably across the field and kicked it strongly into the free goal corner. As a goalie, it jumped quickly to the ground when CIT kicked. Consequently, Dynaped won the final 2:0. On Friday, Dynaped also won the technical challenge of the TeenSize class. He successfully dribbled the ball through multiple obstacles and he also was the fastest robot in the foot race. In the KidSize technical challenge, our robot Rudi performed multiple successful throw-ins and reached the largest distance.

RoboCup 2009 TeenSize Final: NimbRo vs. CIT Brains

RoboCup 2009: Dynaped Obstacle Dribbling

In the @Home League, our robots Robotinho and Dynamaid reached the highest score in the Introduce test. Dynamaid successfully performed the Follow-me and the Who-is-Who test. Both robots reached the second highest score in the Open Challenge, where Robotinho gave a home tour to a guest while Dynamaid delivered a drink. In Stage II, Dynamaid did the Walk&Talk test, the Supermarket test and the Party-bot test very well. Both robots were used in the Demo Challenge. After Stage II, our team had the second most points, almost on par with the leading team. In the final, Dynamaid detected persons and delivered drinks to them. Overall, our team reached the third place in the @Home competition. We won also the innovation award for "Innovative robot body design, Empathic behaviors, and Robot-Robot Cooperation". [video]

RoboCup 2009 @Home Final: Dynamaid Grasping

German Open 2009, Hannover

24.4.2009
Our Robots won the Humanoid League soccer tournament!
After winning the semi-final against FUmanoids (FU Berlin) yesterday, our robots met today the team Darmstadt Dribblers in the final.
Both teams played their best soccer games so far. Our robots had a clear advantage. Consequently, the score at half time was 4:1 and the final score was 8:2 for NimbRo
[video].

RoboCup German Open 2009 Final: NimbRo 8 - 2 Darmstadt Dribblers

NimbRo also participated for the first time in the @Home league.
In Stage I, we used Robotinho for the introduce task. It explained itself and Dynamaid and interacted with a human in a natural way. For the follow me task, we used Dynamaid. She was able to quickly follow an unknown human though the arena, outside, and back into the arena. She also could be controlled by voice commands. Dynamaid also did the fetch and carry task very well. She took spoken orders from the human user and delivered reliably the requested object.
In Stage II, Dynamaid did the walk and talk task perfectly. A human showed her places in the apartment that she could visit afterwards as requested by spoken commands. In the demo challenge, the users could order different drinks that she fetched quickly and reliably from different places in the apartment.
In the final, Robotinho gave a tour through the apartment while Dynamaid fetched a drink for a guest [video].
Overall, the NimbRo@Home team reached the second place, only a few points behind b-it-bots.

RoboCup German Open 2009 Final: Robotinho gives a home tour

RoboCup German Open 2009 Final: Dynamaid offers a drink

RoboCup German Open 2009: Dynamaid fetches a drink

RoboCup 2008, Suzhou China

20.7.2008
Our Robots won the Humanoid League KidSize 3 vs. 3 soccer tournament!
In the final game of the 3 vs. 3 soccer tournament, NimbRo met Team Osaka, for the fourth time in a row. Both teams had improved their systems significantly, compared to 2007. NimbRo scored the first goal, but the Osaka robots replied quickly. The exciting game was open until the end as no team could reach a clear lead. After regular time, the score was 6:6. In the extra time, the NimbRo robots scored one more goal, yielding the final result of 7:6 for NimbRo.

A video of the final game can be seen here in wmv format and here on YouTube.

RoboCup 2008 Final: NimbRo 7:6 Team Osaka

In TeenSize, NimbRo won before the third-place Dribble-and-Kick game against Robo Erectus with 2:0.

19.7.2008
Our robots reached the KidSize final! It will be played on Sunday for the fourth time in a row with Team Osaka. In the semi final our robots met CIT Brains from Japan and won 4:2. The quarter final was played with Darmstadt Dribblers. NimbRo won 5:2.
In the TeenSize class, our robots met Team Osaka in the semi final. The game was very exciting. After five kicks, the result was 3:3, after three more kicks, the result was still a draw. The game ended 7:6 for Team Osaka. Our robots will play the third place game on Sunday with Robo Erectus from Singapore.

17.7.2008
Our robots paricipate in the RoboCup 2008 competition in Suzhou, China. In the KidSize class, the robots won all games of the first and second round robin and will meet Darmstadt Dribblers in the quarter final on Saturday. In the TeenSize round robin, our robot Bodo won 3:0 against Robo-Erectus. With some bad luck, it lost the game against Tshingua 1:2. The round robin will continue on Friday morning. Friday will also be the day for the technical challenges. RoboCup German Open 2008.

RoboCup German Open in Hannover, April 2008

Our robots won the Humanoid League competitions at RoboCup German Open 2008.

25.4.2008
The final game of the soccer tournament was played with FUmanoid from FU Berlin. The NimbRo robots dominated the game. They were coordinated well and scored one goal after the other. The half-time score was 7:0. FUmanoid forfeited the game in the middle of the second half at a score of 10:0 for NimbRo.

RoboCup German Open 2008 Final: NimbRo vs. FUmanoid

24.4.2008
In the semi-final, our robots met again B-Human. After changing the WLAN channel, our robots were able to communicate better, which allowed them to effectively negotiate roles. They played very well and scored reliably. The score at half time was 9:0. The second half ended after 20s when B-Human forfeited the game at a score of 10:0.

German Open 2008 Semi-final: NimbRo vs. B-Human

The day starts with the technical challenges. Our robot Lothar walked very quickly through the obstacles. With 11s he needed less than half the time of the second fastest robot. He also dribbled the ball half way around the colored poles and was the only robot to score in this challenge. Consequently, our team won the technical challenges with 14 points. Runner up was Darmstadt Dribblers with 7 points and third place was awarded to B-Human (5 points).

23.4.2008
In the second round robin game we met B-Human from Bremen. Due to the increased number of players, the space around the ball was frequently very crowded. After 5:0 at half time, the game ended 10:0 for NimbRo. This makes NimbRo winner of group A. NimbRo advances directly to the semi-final.

RoboCup German Open 2008: NimbRo vs. B-Human

In our first round robin game we met the team FUmanoid from FU Berlin. The NimbRo robots played coordinated with three robots and scored reliably. After 7:0 at half time, the game ended 11:1 for NimbRo.

RoboCup German Open 2008: NimbRo vs. FUmanoid

RoboCup German Open 2008: NimbRo kicking

RoboCup in Atlanta, July 2007

[Best-of Humanoid League Team Nimbro at RoboCup 2007 (WMV, 52MB)]

Team NimbRo won all finals of the Humanoid League at RoboCup 2007! We are the winner of the Kidsize 2 vs. 2 games as well as the winner of the Teensize penalty kick competition.
Additionally, our Kidsize and Teensize robots were elected to be the second and third best humanoid robot teams right after the Kidsize robot of Team Osaka.

For older news see the news archive.

DFG-project: "NimbRo - Learning humanoid robots"

The project is funded by the "Aktionsplan Informatik" of German Research Foundation. It aims at developing learning humanoid robots, which have an anthropomorphic body and anthropomorphic senses. For this purpose we are developing mechanical and electronic components as well as algorithms for perception and behavior control.

Our research objectives include achieving energy-efficient bipedal locomotion by supporting the system dynamics and intuitive multimodal communication with humans through analysis and synthesis of body language, gestures, facial expressions, and language. We are going to use different learning techniques, such as learning by imitation, to optimize the robots' behavior.

We are going to use two test beds to investigate different aspects of the problem: the robots should take part in the RoboCup soccer competitions and also shall be deployed as museum guides. It is planned to improve the robot on a yearly schedule.