Computer Engineering Department

Robotics Laboratory

                                                   Watch the Robocup 2007 Germany-Japan Game

Group of Interest on Robocup (GIR)

RoboCup is an international joint project to foster AI and intelligent robotics research by providing a standard problem. The ultimate goal of RoboCup is to develop by 2050 a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world champion team in soccer. This idea will promote advancing human knowledge about autonomous robotics and will culminate by an intelligent robot that will assist human in many aspect of life. The educational approach is estimated to be one of the most effective because it teaches sophisticated robotic intelligence design through the programming of a robotic game, e.g. teaching by playing.

Motivation

• Develop an awareness of Autonomous Robotics emphasized by ROBOCUP Competition.
• Develop techniques for distributed Intelligence using humanoid robots like the Kondo KHR-1
• Develop a platform for Robocup including Motion, Vision, and Distributed Intelligence Techniques
• Specific Tasks are:

   

  • Task-1: developing a serial interface between a PC and the Kondo KHR-1 controller  to program Kondo motion. Program a library of motion functions allowing the Kondo to (1) walk using its left and right legs, (2) moving forward and backward, (3) turning its body while walking, and (4) kicking a ball towards the goal.  (See details below)

   

  • Task-2: developing a platform integrating an embedded computing system (ECS) with a color camera to be attached on the Kondo KHR-1 humanoid. The ECS must have a high level programming tool allowing developing user programs and downloading on the ECS. In addition, the ECS must be capable of grabbing no less that 10 frame per second. The ECS must have some processing capability making it possible to embed the Vision System and the Robocup Behavior Programming and them concurrently with a decent refreshing rate of no less than 5 iterations per second.( See details below).

     

  • Task-3: Coordinate a Workshop to be delivered by the members upon achieving of the above two tasks.

   

Who are the members of the GIR

Any individual (faculty, students, engineer or other) who is interested in Robocup and willing to participate and contribute to it

How to become a member of the GIR

Send email to Prof. Mayez Al-Mouhamed at mayez@ccse.kfupm.edu.sa expressing your intention to participate and contribute to GIR.

How the GIR is working

• Meeting are regularly organized for the GIR members
• The meeting presents a platform for discussing progress made and coordinate task distribution among the members.

Current GIR members

• Mr. Khalid Mousa Al-Hawaj, Electical Engineering, email s200446240@kfupm.edu.sa,
• Mr. Zuhair Yarub Khayyat, Computer Engineering,  Phone 0503418330, khayyatzy@sabic.com
• Mr. Ahamd Adnan Abu-Arafah, s200434320@kfupm.edu.sa
• Mr. Faisal Salem Al-Ghamdi  (s200372630@kfupm.edu.sa), SWE, ICS, KFUPM.
• Mr. Emad Daghreri, SWE - Freshman, Websites & Blogs Designer, Phone +966562778257,  emad.daghreri@gmail.com
• Dr. Mayez Al-Mouhamed, computer engineering, Phone 9663-8602934, mayez@kfupm.edu.sa

Description of GIR Tasks

Task-1: Design of a library of motion functions for a humanoid robot for Soccer game.

• Background:  The Kondo KHR-1 is humanoid robot having 19 degrees of freedom (dof)  in its legs (each is 6), arms (each is 3), and head (one). The Kondo has a micro-controller allowing the servo control of all of its 19 dofs. The Kondo Controller has a Serial Interface (RS232C) with a PC from where a user interface is provided. The Kondo is provided with a user interface (heart-to-heart or HTH) allowing programming the configuration of all of its 19 dofs by setting the value of the motor angles in a specific table, then it allows sending the values to the Kondo using the above serial communication. The HTH carries out serial communication based on a USB port with the Kondo using some unknown protocol. To control the walking motion of Kondo during a soccer game we need a program (robocup behavior programming) to command the walking/kicking for the Kondo. For this we need to know how HTH communicate with Kondo and what are the commands and possible handshaking signals.

• Description: designing of a library of motion functions allowing the Kondo to walk using its left and right legs, moving forward and backward, turning its body while walking, and kicking a ball towards the goal. The tasks are:

1. Step-1: Review the Kondo mechanics, assembly, user manual, and get familiar with the provided servo interface (described above).

 

2. Step-1: can program a specific motion by sequencing (time) a series of angle configurations that are required to generate desired motion. Identify the communication functions between HTH and Kondo and develop a program to carry out the above communication.

 

3. Step-3:  Program a library of motion functions allowing the Kondo to (1) walk using its left and right legs, (2) moving forward and backward, (3) turning its body while walking, and (4) kicking a ball towards the goal. It is clear that some variant of the above might be needed.

 

4. Step-4: Testing the above a library of motion functions and tuning of the above functions to improve performance. Some evaluation is also needed regarding the duration of each motion and its reliability.

 

Task-2: Developing an embedded computing system (ECS) for Vision and Behavior Programming for Robocup.

• Background:  developing a platform integrating an embedded computing system (ECS) with a color camera to be attached on the Kondo KHR-1 humanoid. The ECS must have a high level programming tool allowing developing user programs and downloading on the ECS. In addition, the ECS must be capable of grabbing no less that 10 frame per second. The ECS must have some processing capability making it possible to embed the Vision System and the Robocup Behavior Programming and them concurrently with a decent refreshing rate of no less than 5 iterations per second. The Kondo KHR-1 is humanoid robot having 19 degrees of freedom which are controlled using a micro-controller allowing the servo control of all of its 19 dofs. The Kondo Controller has a Serial Interface (RS232C) with a PC from where a user interface (heart-to-heart or HTH) is provided. HTH allows programming the configuration of all of its 19 dofs by setting the value of the motor angles in a specific table, then it allows sending the values to the Kondo using the above serial communication. The HTH carries out serial communication based on a USB port with the Kondo using some unknown protocol. The ECS must be able to communicate with Kondo using Kondo communication protocol (HTH) which is to be found in Task-1.

• Description: Developing an embedded computing system (ECS) for Vision and Behavior Programming for Robocup:

1. Step-1: Review some well known ECS and test their ability to communicate with a Laptop (preferably using wireless communication for downloading programs) and interfacing with the Kondo KHR-1 as to emulate the motion generation which is currently done using the Heart-to-heart interface.

2. Step-2:  Evaluate the selected ECS and to test its ability to grab images from some low resolution miniature cameras. Examine the overall power consumption of the ECS under heavy video grabbing.  Determine the video frame rate and the available computing power of the ECS vs grabbing tasks because the ECS will be intended to be used for vision processing and behavior programming. For this its available computing power is very important in the selection of the solution ECS.

3. Step-3:  Program a simple image grabbing and ball detection so that a motion command can be generated to the kondo. The command is to have the kondo walking toward the detected ball facing the goal and carry out a ball kicking.

4. Step-4:  Examine embedding the ECS on the Kondo with its own power supplies and testing its ability to carry out the task described above.