Some reflections on ERL Emergency 2017

It has now been a couple of weeks since the ERL Emergency robotics competition in Piombino, Italy, so I've had time to wind down and reflect a little on the event. The competition and associated events was a great success. A total of 16 teams from 9 countries were organised into 8 multi-domain (air, land and sea) groups for the competition - see the ERL Emergency programme here for details.

From a technical point of view what interested me the most was to see how those teams improved their performances since euRathlon 2015.  Of course a precise comparison is not possible for several reasons: first, not all teams participated in both 2015 and 2017 competitions - and of those that did both personnel and robots had been refreshed, and second, since this is an outdoor competition - conditions (weather, wind and especially sea) were inevitably different.

However, the fact that euRathlon 2015 and ERL Emergency 2017 were held at the same location, with updated but broadly similar competition scenarios means that general scenario (task) level comparisons are possible. In fact we also carried forward some of the functional benchmarks from the 2015 competition, which will allow detailed analysis across both competitions (but not in this blog post).

Instead I will here give a few general (and rather subjective) comments comparing 2015 and 2017 performance.

Communications continued to be a problem for teams, with all but one team in 2017 (as in 2015) choosing to communicate with their land robots via WiFi. Now any communications engineer (as I used to be) will tell you that WiFi is a hopelessly bad choice for outdoor communications. The image above shows the waypoint positions for ground robots from the start position W1 to W6 in front of the building. The control tent was located near to W1 close to the trees above the beach - about 112m from the front of the building - and with no line of sight to W6 because of the uneven terrain. And to make matters worse the land robots need to enter the building and locate the machine room - about 10m from the entrance and again with no line of sight. Despite the obvious drawbacks of WiFi those teams that did use it came up with workarounds, including using robots as mobile repeaters and ingenious systems in which robots deployed a succession of fixed repeaters. There was clearly progress in communications from 2015 to 2017 because, in 2015 - when it became clear that no team could communicate successfully with the machine room (room #3) - we relocated the machine room from the rear of the building to the front (room #1), whereas in 2017 no such relocation was necessary; those teams that reached the machine room at the rear of the building were able to communicate with their robots. See the floorplan here.

Human-robot interfaces were critical to success. In 2015 we saw some interfaces that made it extremely difficult for teams to remotely tele-operate their robots, when operators struggled with postage-stamp sized windows showing the live video feed from the robot's cameras (especially difficult when bright sunshine most days meant that light levels are very high inside the tent). In 2017 we saw not only much improved HRIs but integration between autonomous and tele-operated functions so that, for instance, operators were able to drag and drop the next waypoint then monitor the robot's autonomous progress to that waypoint, then - when at the waypoint - make use of smart machine vision to identify objects of potential interest (OPIs).

Effective human-human communication was also a critical success factor, underlining the fact that ERL Emergency tests not just robots but human robot teams or - to be more accurate - human-human-robot-robot teams. Given that typically a team's aerial, underwater and land robot operators were in separate control tents, establishing exactly how and when these operators would communicate with each other was very important. In this regard we (the judges) didn't mind how intra-team communication was organised - they could use WiFi, mobile phones, or even a runner. In 2015 the weaker teams clearly had obviously not thought about this at all and suffered as a result. Again in 2017 we saw a big improvement, with very effective intra-team communication in the most successful teams.

The full results listings are shown here for euRathlon 2015, and here for ERL Emergency 2017.

Here are a few images from the 2017 competition:

In praise of robot football

Republished here is a short piece for The Conversation: 4-4-2 becomes 0101: inside the competitive world of robot football, published 4 August 2014.

The whistle has just been blown on one of the most thrilling events on the international sporting calendar. It took place in Brazil and pitted teams from all over the world against each other, each hoping to make it into the history books. But no managers were fired, no grass had to be watered and certainly no one got bitten. The event was the Robocup, a tournament that sees professional footballers replaced by robots. It’s one of a number of regular tournaments for teams of programmers and robotics experts to show off their latest work.

The Robocup standard platform league matches play out on a much smaller scale than your average World Cup match. An arena of around 6 metres by 9 metres is marked out as a miniature pitch and 10, rather than 22 players file on to battle it out. The players are NAO robots, state of the art bipedal humanoid robots which stand about 60cm tall.

This is not what you might describe as a high-speed contest. The robots walk to take a kick or a tackle and, really, waddle might be a more apt word for their approach. The ball never gets lofted into the air and that’s probably for the best – a header might cause a serious malfunction.

2014 RoboCup SPL Grand Final

But the game is far from boring. Sitting around the arena, boys and girls, with family standing behind, are rapt, cheering with every contact. And make no mistake, the robots are properly playing. They pass, position and defend just like human players.

On either side of the pitch a row of desks can be found. This is where the brains behind the teams sit. Behind a row of laptops, they anxiously watch their players perform. But they are not controlling the robots. These coder/managers send the command to start the players when the referee signals kick-off but during the match the robots are completely autonomous.

This is what makes robot football so extraordinary. The robots are not just being moved around the pitch by remote control; they are making their own decisions. They control where they run (or waddle), pass the ball and shoot for the goal without any live direction from a human. Their choices are based on what they see and the position of the ball, their teammates and the opposing team.

It’s what’s inside that counts

While a team of human players often comes complete with a dazzling array of ridiculous haircuts and tattoos, it is much harder to tell a team of robots apart. All the players are physically identical – the only visible differences on a robot football pitch are coloured markings to differentiate the two teams.

But appearances can be deceptive. Under their plastic skins the teams are far from the same. Each runs completely different software that has been painstakingly crafted by the team coders. The software to make these robots play football cannot be downloaded from an app store. It has to be crafted from scratch. Football is a complex sport and there are potentially limitless strategies that a team could use to win. This is hard-core coding.

The contest is, in effect, a battle of software. All things being equal – and at the moment they pretty much are – the team with the smartest programming, coding the cleverest plays will emerge victorious. At the end of the first-half the robots are brought to a halt. At this point, the team coders can be seen furiously attacking their laptops. This is their chance to quickly modify their robots’ software after seeing how they performed in the first half. They might have as little as ten minutes to do it, which seems like a risky strategy.

There’s a chance that the coders could make a mistake that renders the robots incapable of doing anything at all, let alone play a better game, but it’s a chance worth taking. If, in the first-half, the other team breaks out some nifty new moves, running rings (perhaps literally) around their opponents, this is the best opportunity the coders will get to raise their team’s game. It’s the robot equivalent of the tough talking in the half-time dressing room.

It’s easy to see why Robocup and the FIRA world cup, the two major international competitions, are so successful. Both contests have been running since around 1996. Some teams enter every year, building tremendous experience and a sophisticated code base. And several world-leading research groups use these contests as a test-bed for new approaches to multi-robot collaboration, publishing their findings in leading robotics journals afterwards.

As a robotics competition robot football ticks all the boxes: a game with universal appeal yet also hugely demanding for robots; it’s a fun way for young roboticists to learn robot programming, and it’s a great spectator sport too.

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Acknowledgements: this article was commissioned and edited by The Conversation Technology Editor Laura Hood.

Related blog posts:
FIRA 2012 Robot World Cup to be hosted by the Bristol Robotics Lab

Don't build robots, build robot systems

Why aren't there more intelligent mobile robots in real world applications? It's a good question, and one I'm often asked. The answer I give most often is that it's because we're still looking for that game changing killer app - the robotics equivalent of the spreadsheet for PCs. Sometimes I place the blame on a not-quite-yet-solved technical deficit - like poor sensing, or sensor fusion, or embedded AI; in other words, our intelligent robots are not yet smart enough. Or I might cite a not-fully-developed-capability, like robots not able to cope with unpredictable (i.e. human) environments, or we can't yet assure that our robots are safe, and dependable.

Last week at euRathlon 2013 I realised that these answers are all wrong. Actually that would be giving myself credit where none is due. The answer to the question: why aren't there more intelligent mobile robots in real world applications was pointed out by several of the presenters at the euRathlon 2013 workshop, but most notably by our keynote speaker Shinji Kawatsuma, from the Japan Atomic Energy Authority (JAEA). In an outstanding talk Kawatsuma explained, with disarming frankness, that, although his team had robots they were poorly prepared to use those robots in the Fukushima Daiichi NPP, because the systems for deployment were not in place. The robots are not enough. Just as important are procedures and protocols for robot deployment in an emergency; mobile infrastructure, including vehicles to bring the robots to the emergency, which are capable - as he vividly explained - of negotiating a road system choked with debris (from the Tsunami) and strained with other traffic (rescue workers and evacuees); integration with other emergency services; and, above all, robot operators trained, practised and confident to guide the robots through whatever hazards they will face in the epicentre of the disaster.

In summing up the lessons learned from robots at Fukushima, Shinji Kawatsuma offered this advice - actually it was more of a heartfelt plea: don't build robots, build robot systems. And, he stressed, those systems must include operator training programmes. It was a powerful message for all of us at the workshop. Intelligent robots are endlessly fascinating machines, with all kinds of difficult design challenges, so it's not surprising that our attention is focussed on the robots themselves. But we need to understand that real world robots are like movie stars - who (despite what they might think) wouldn't be movie stars at all without the supporting cast, camera and sound crews, writers, composers, special effects people and countless other departments that make the film industry. Take the Mars rover Curiosity - an A-list movie star of robotics. Curiosity could not do its job without an extraordinary supporting infrastructure that, firstly, delivered her safely to the surface of Mars and, secondly, allows Curiosity's operators to direct her planetary science exploration.

Curiosity: an A-list movie star robot (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS), with a huge supporting cast of science and technology.

















So, to return to my question why aren't there more intelligent mobile robots in real world applications. The answer is plain. It's because without supporting systems: infrastructure and skilled operators integrated and designed to meet the real world need, a robot - regardless of how innovative and intelligent it is - will never make the transition from the lab to the real world. Without those systems that robot will remain no more than a talented but undiscovered actor.

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Hans-Arthur Marsiske, The use of robots in Fukushima: Shinji Kawatsuma Interview, Heise online, 25 September 2013 (in German).
K Nagatani, S Kiribayashi, Y Okada, K Otake, K Yoshida, S Tadokoro, T Nishimura, T Yoshida, E Koyanagi, M Fukushima and S Kawatsuma, Emergency response to the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants using mobile rescue robots, Journal of Field Robotics, 30 (1), 44-63, 2013.

euRathlon and the DARPA Robot Challenge: a difference of approach

A week ago the DARPA Robotics Challenge unveiled the ATLAS humanoid robot, which will be used by seven competing teams. Developed by Boston Dynamics, ATLAS is an imposing 1.8m 150Kg bipedal humanoid robot, powered via a tethered cable. Another six teams have designed their own robots, and interestingly five of these are humanoid, and one a four-limbed simian-inspired robot.

In the euRathlon project we are taking a different approach in that we don't expect, or require, the competing robots to be humanoid or zoomorphic. None of the euRathlon competition scenarios demand a humanoid robot to, for example, be able to step inside a vehicle and drive it. However, for the land robots at least, there is nothing stopping euRathlon teams from bringing humanoid robots to the competition.

As I wrote when we launched euRathlon early this year, the big vision of euRathlon is a competition scenario in which no single type of robot is, on its own, sufficient. Inspired by the Fukushima accident of March 2011, the 2015 euRathlon competition will require teams of land, sea and flying robots to autonomously cooperate to survey the scene, identify critical hazards and undertake tasks to make the plant safe. Leading up to this grand challenge in 2015, will be related and preparatory land and underwater robot competitions in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

The difference of our approach is not the result of an in-principle decision. Rather, it flows naturally from several factors. First, we are specifically creating competition scenarios that require cooperating teams across the three domains of land, sea and air. Second, we are looking for very high levels of autonomy, so the robot teams will, ideally, complete their mission with hands-off human monitoring only. Any human interventions will be penalised in the euRathlon scoring schema. And third, we are not looking to push innovation in the robot platforms themselves, but rather in their cognition, autonomy and system level team working. Thus, euRathlon teams who make use of existing and proven robot hardware will gain a big advantage in that they can focus all of their efforts on the software, communications and systems engineering; the AI and the autonomy. And by autonomy we mean both control and energy autonomy. The euRathlon competition scenarios preclude the use of tethered power connections, so robots must carry their own energy supplies sufficient to last the whole mission.

For these reasons the euRathlon robots are likely to look rather conventional: wheeled or tracked land robots; fixed or rotary wing (i.e. quadcopter) flying robots, and ROV-type underwater robots. Not as dramatic as the DARPA robot challenge humanoid or animal-like robots perhaps, but looks can be deceptive: the real innovation in the euRathlon robots will be in the autonomous cooperation across the three domains. Something that has not been demonstrated in realistic outdoor disaster response scenarios.

Of course there is nothing to stop euRathlon teams from using a bio-mimetic approach, so fish-like underwater robot cooperate with bird-like flying robots, and legged animal-like land robots. That really would be something!

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Related blog posts:
euRathlon is go! (Feb 2013)
Real-world robotics reality check (May 2010)
A truly Grand Challenge (August 2007)

euRathlon is go!

I'm very excited to be leading a new project called euRathlon - which is short for European Robotics Athlon. Up until now the project has been under wraps, but now - finally - we can go public. I'll explain a bit more about the process that led to here later in this blog post, but first - about euRathlon.

It is an EU funded project to set up and run a series of outdoor robotics competitions. The focus is robots for search and rescue, or - more broadly - disaster response. Right now robots are not part of the standard equipment of emergency services, like fire brigades. But actually, robotics technology is coming close to the point where they could be and, in my view, should be. It seems to me that first responders should have robots as a standard part of their equipment, so that when there is a disaster robots are used as a matter of routine. euRathlon will, I hope, speed up the development and adoption of smarter robots for first responders.

The big vision of euRathlon is a competition scenario in which no single type of robot is, on its own, sufficient. Inspired by the Fukushima accident of 2011, our Grand Challenge will require teams of land, sea and flying robots to investigate the scene. Here is the project abstract:

euRathlon is a new outdoor robotics competition, which will invite teams to test the intelligence and autonomy of their robots in realistic mock emergency-response scenarios. Inspired by the 2011 Fukushima accident the euRathlon competition will require a team of land, underwater and flying robots to work together to survey the scene, collect environmental data, and identify critical hazards. Leading up to this ‘grand challenge’ in 2015, will be directly related land and underwater robot competitions in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The euRathlon competitions will be supported by annual workshops for competitors. In parallel there will be an open process of developing benchmarks to allow comparison of different robots in the euRathlon competitions. Linked public engagement activities will connect euRathlon with robotics research, industry and emergency services, as well as the general public. Attendance of spectators will be welcomed, and we hope that euRathlon events will attract considerable press and media attention. By targeting a specific and urgent need - intelligent robots for disaster-response -euRathlon will provide European robotics with a platform for challenging, extending and showcasing European cognitive robotics technologies.

Followers of this blog will know that I've been involved in the European Land Robotics Challenge (ELROB) for some years. I blogged about it in 2010: Real-world robotics reality check, and in 2007: A truly Grand Challenge. So, when the EU Framework Programme (FP7) issued a call for competition proposals late in 2011 an opportunity arose for those of us involved in ELROB to think about bidding for a new competition, building on that experience and extending our ambition. We were very fortunate to link up with the organisers of the Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe (SAUC-E), a very well regarded underwater robot competition. We then had land and sea robots covered. The final piece of the jigsaw fell into place when we were joined by our final partner, organisers of the workshop on Research, Development and Education on Unmanned Aerial Systems (RED-UAS 2011), with huge experience of aerial robots.

The euRathlon consortium was complete, and together we submitted our bid in April 2012. Following evaluation the bid was successful and then, from September to December 2012, we went into a phase of project negotiation, in which we worked out and agreed the details of the project with the EC. That process concluded successfully, and the project started on 1 January 2013.

So now, euRathlon is go!

FIRA 2012 Robot World Cup to be hosted by the Bristol Robotics Lab

We're all very excited because FIRA (the Federation of International Robot soccer Association), which runs an annual competition for robot soccer (and other robot sports), has awarded the 2012 event to the Bristol Robotics Lab. The 2010 event was held in Bangalore, India: check here for the web pages with 2010 results and some terrific videos. This year FIRA 2011 will be in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

FIRA 2012 will run from 20 - 25 August 2012, just a week or so after London 2012. Alongside FIRA 2012 will be two robotics conferences: the FIRA Congress and TAROS 2012 (Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems). Here is the (under development) FIRA-TAROS 2012 web site. Here is the joint University of Bristol, UWE press release announcing the event.

The FIRA robot world cup games currently fall into 7 categories and each category is defined by the type of robot and, typically, has its own set of rules. The first six categories are all real physical robots, the 7th - SimuroSot - is all in simulation. Here's a brief summary of the 6 real robot categories with links to the full descriptions and rules on the FIRA web pages.

• HuroSot is the main category for bipedal (walking and running) humanoid robots. It is also the most comprehensive category - in addition to soccer the category includes competitions for basketball, wall climbing, weight lifting and marathon running. HuroSot robots can be up to 130cm in height, and weigh up to 30kg. We will be entering a Bristol team for HuroSot. Here are some nice videos of HuroSot competitions in 2009.
• Amiresot is a simple one-a-side soccer game for the small Amire wheeled robot, which must be fully autonomous with its own vision system. AmireSot robots play with a yellow tennis ball.
• MiroSot is the Micro Robot soccer game for wheeled robots. It's a three-a-side game (one player can be a goalkeeper), in which an external vision system tracks the position of robots - and the ball - and an external computer system computes and relays moves to the robots. Robots cannot be larger than 7.5cm x 7.5cm x 7.5cm and they play with an orange golf ball. Here is a page with a video of a 2009 MiroSot game.
• NaroSot is similar to MiroSot but with smaller wheeled robots (4cm x 4cm x 5.5cm) and is a five-a-side game. NaroSot robots play with an orange ping-pong ball.
• AndroSot is a three-a-side game for fully autonomous 'android' robots between 30 and 60cm in height. Here is a video of a 2009 AndroSot game. 
• RoboSot is a game for larger wheeled robots (20cm x 20cm x any height). It's a three-a-side game and the robots must use on-board vision, although computation may be off-board. RoboSot robots play with a yellow/green tennis ball.

Here are some of the robots entered in past competitions (from the FIRA web pages):

HuroSot

MiroSot

NaroSot

RoboSot