While there are other blog posts that go into detail about each day at Robocup 2017 (see here), this blog is a more in-depth look back at our experiences during and after the competition.
The S.A.R.T. at Robocup 2017, Nagoya
I’ve compiled a video of some footage of our robot during the competition, navigating through the maze. It’s 30 minutes, so I don’t expect you to sit through all of it but you’re perfectly welcome to if you’re into that sort of thing.
A little bit of background on the above video:
This compilation includes 3 runs, during which one person was allowed to act as a ‘spotter’ and whomever was controlling the robot remotely was not allowed to look directly at it.
Each run lasts 15 minutes, the aim of which is to accumulate as many points as possible by performing maneuvers. I know the video only goes for 30 minutes and 3 × 15 minutes ≠ 30 minutes but I managed to cut out some of the boring bits, for your viewing pleasure.
The ‘spotter’ was not allowed to communicate with the operator. The operator could only rely on any sensors or camera streams the robot had.
The ‘spotter’ was allowed to reset the robot to the beginning of a course if it became stuck (or move it anywhere within the maze). This happens a few times.
The ‘spotter’ was not allowed to touch the robot at any time. Doing so would constitute a reset, however if the robot fell off the maze and onto the ground unexpectedly, they were allowed to catch it to prevent damage.
This video is probably really helpful for the current S.A.R.T as they can see how the robot performed in the maze and make some design considerations based on the robot’s performance.
The S.A.R.T. Symposium Presentation
The video below is of the symposium, where the S.A.R.T. had a 15 minute window to explain how the robot works and what it’s intended use case is. This is probably a good place to start if you have absolutely no idea what we’re doing or why.
This clip was edited by Jack, who cut out any superfluous bits and added subtitles so you can tell what we’re saying.
After the competition, we were invited to speak at the Aichi University Nagoya Campus for the 21st annual RoboCup International Symposium.
Riley introduces the concept of a first responder and what they need in a confined space rescue robot.
Matthew addresses the engineering process from design and modelling to printing and testing.
Ryan talks about the programming of the robot, our use of GitHub and the importance of our open source philosophy.
Aaron covers the robot’s network and the work that went into ensuring we could run without a tether.
Jack discusses the human/robot interface and how our implementation addresses the needs of first responders.
The Worst Vlog Ever
Finally, courtesy of Jack, who spent many months reviewing and editing all the photos and videos we took during our trip to Japan, is the feature-length account of Robocup 2017 Japan experience.
Enjoy.
A man by the name of Gerry had an idea.
A rescue vehicle, a robot rapidly manufactured, built by a team of students that had everyone saying “just one more feature”.
This man.
That robot.
Those students have brought all of us here to celebrate what has become…
SFXRescue.
The Semi Autonomous Rescue Team presents The Worst Vlog Ever: 6 hours of photo and video content reduced to a feature length 115 minutes.
S.A.R.T. 2017 TDM Paper
The full 2017 TDM (Team Description Materials) documents our research, development and testing of the S.A.R.T. robot.
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Read More
For more blogs from 2017, see here.
For more recent development updates, see here.
For more videos on the S.A.R.T.’s development, see the YouTube channel here.
For the code used in the 2017 Robocup competition, see here.
For the code currently in use, see here.