The NAO
Soccer Robots
Implementing soccer behaviors in the Webots
simulator for NAO robots.
Kristjan Arumae, Sarah Myhre, Chris Cassian Olschewski
Sponsor:
Dr. Gita Sukthankar
Adviser:
Astrid Jackson
Senior Design: Dr. Mark Heinrich
Project Objectives


Create autonomous agents
with soccer behaviors in a
simulation environment
Create resources to guide
future students working with
the NAO simulator or robots
Current State

Soccer simulation code is rare

Most code develop for SimSpark

Complexity through years of iteration

Documentation limited and incomplete

Difficult to adopt for own purposes,
not designed for flexibility
Solutions by (Senior) Design

Make code public and easily available

Develop in Webots for NAO

Structure low-level design in a modular,
easy to approach way

Have thorough and complete
documentation

Design code for multiple functions
Major Components
Robot Vision
Robot Locomotion
& Decision Making
Online Resources
Team Development

Windows, Mac, Linux
Linux

Java
Python

Choreographe
Naoqi API

Webots Trackers
OpenCV
Technical Design
Major Components
Robot Vision
Robot Locomotion
& Decision Making
Online Resources
Robot Vision: OpenCV
RGB
HSV
BGR
Grayscale
Robot Vision: In Code
Robot Vision: In Code
Robot Vision: Bounding Boxes
Major Components
Robot Vision
Robot Locomotion
& Decision Making
Online Resources
NAOqi: Anatomy of a Kick





Legs fixed to constrains
Balance activated for support leg
Duration for balance leg mode set
3 lists of actuator settings passed
3 time steps passed and motion executed
NAOqi: Kick Locomotion
NAOqi: Decision Making
NAO Behavior Tree
Goalie
NAOqi: Decision Making
Behavior
→ init stance
→ find ball
→ block
NAOqi: Decision Making
NAO Behavior Tree
Striker
NAOqi: Decision Making
Striker Behavior
Walk Towards
NAOqi: Decision Making
Major Components
Robot Vision
Robot Locomotion
& Decision Making
Online Resources
Resource: Online Wiki
Future Applications

Memory of World State, Confidences

Artificial Neural Networks

Locomotion Training with Genetic Algorithms
Evaluation
Implements
proposed
solutions?
Evaluation
Implements
proposed
solutions!

Widely available on public git repository:
https://github.com/ChecksumCharlie/nao-ucf
Evaluation
Implements
proposed
solutions!


Widely available on public git repository:
https://github.com/ChecksumCharlie/nao-ucf
Implementation specifically tailored to Webots
Evaluation
Implements
proposed
solutions!

 Implementation specifically tailored to Webots
Code with different levels of sophistication

Widely available on public git repository:
https://github.com/ChecksumCharlie/nao-ucf
Evaluation
Implements
proposed
solutions!

 Implementation specifically tailored to Webots
Code with different levels of sophistication

 All documentation online: NAO UCF website
Widely available on public git repository:
https://github.com/ChecksumCharlie/nao-ucf
Evaluation
Implements
proposed
solutions!

 Implementation specifically tailored to Webots
Code with different levels of sophistication

 All documentation online: NAO UCF website
Team templates and plug’n’play BTs/FSMs

Widely available on public git repository:
https://github.com/ChecksumCharlie/nao-ucf

CS Senior Design Year 1 Complete

Team Soccer Robots created autonomous agents with
soccer behaviors in a simulation environment

Team Soccer Robots created resources to guide future
students working with the NAO simulator or robots