Khalifa University Robotics Athletes ‘KURA’ Team Competes in RoboCup with 300 Teams from 45 Countries
Khalifa University of Science and Technology today announced a 14-member Khalifa University Robotics Athletes (KURA) team has won second place globally in the RoboCup Soccer category, Kid-Size Humanoid league, at the RoboCup 2024 challenge held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
With the KURA robot, the multidisciplinary team competed at RoboCup, which included 300 teams from 45 countries across 17 competitions in all five leagues. KURA’s 2nd place achievement came in Khalifa University’s first-ever participation at RoboCup, the premier championship for robotics, founded with the aim of sharing knowledge and accelerating developments in robotics, was organized by the Eindhoven University of Technology, in collaboration with the non-profit foundation Promotech2050, which aims to promote robotics to a wide audience.
Dr. Hamad Karki, Associate Professor, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, and Principal Investigator of the KURA project, said: “Achieving second place in an international robotics competition in Europe is another strong demonstration of Khalifa University’s expertise in this advanced technology field. This is especially relevant now as Khalifa University is preparing to host and organize the 36th edition of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2024), in Abu Dhabi in October this year. Congratulations to the team that built the KURA Humanoid Robot with special capabilities to achieve excellent results. Their team spirit, technical preparation level, and the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to hands-on projects are all truly commendable.”
With faculty and students from Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace, Electrical, as well as Computer Engineering, the team was advised by Dr. Hamad Karki, Associate Professor, Dr. Giulia De Masi, Program Manager, Visiting Researchers and Dr. Azer Babaev, as Technical Advisor.
Khalifa University’s team participated at the RoboCup Kid Size League and demonstrated its skills with the KURA Robot, equipped with a camera to identify the ball, goal post, and other players. With 20 servo-motors and pressure sensors on the feet to regulate ball kicking, it also incorporated AI on the edge to make decisions for fine movements. A dedicated simulator helped in testing the control algorithms in advance before taking the robot to the pitch. The research focus of the KURA robot is mechatronics design, control and multi-agent cooperation at plan and perception levels.
In the RoboCup Kid Size League, teams of five fully autonomous robots play soccer with a FIFA size 1 soccer ball. This league showcased the most spectacular football, featuring teams of table-high football robots engaged in a five-on-five game, autonomously controlling the field without any human input. Teams designed their own hardware but all sensors had to be on-board and there is a limit on the size and weight of the robots.
Using the sensors, the robots played strategically and shared their position and other data with each other. The driving and shooting capabilities of the robots made the RoboCup competitions attractive to spectators from an entertainment and technology perspective. A human referee’s instructions were relayed to the players via WiFi.
The categories for RoboCup 2024 included autonomous soccer robots competing against each other, home robots assisting with daily tasks, rescue robots detecting victims in disaster situations, industrial robots, and junior competitions where approximately 1,000 young participants competed with their self-built and programmed robots.
Clarence Michael
English Editor – Specialist
25 July 2024
