REEM@IRI at the Robocup. First row: Ricardo Tellez (team leader), David Lucas, David Martinez, Ruben, Gerard, Cecilio Angulo, REEM, Miguel, Albert and Sam. Second row: Yalim, Jona, Jordi, Andreu and Guillem Alenyà.Robocup 2013 congregates every year teams from worldwide that go to test their robots and their capacities as programmers. The contest has different modalities, such as soccer robots, rescue robots, home robots, and a junior competition.
Scientists and students from the Instituto de Robótica e Informática Industrial (CSIC-UPC), the company PAL Robotics and the association AESS Estudiants, which brings together students from different schools of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), have teamed together to compete in Robocup for the first time. The team has been led by Ricardo Tellez, at Pal Robotics, Guillem Alenyà, CSIC scientist at the IRI and Cecilio Angulo, professor at the UPC.
With the robot REEM they have competed in the Robocup@home. In this contest modality, robots have to show they are capable of doing routine works which are usual in domestic life: to move through the house, to identify and take some objects, to follow people...
"People at university and centres like the IRI do high-level research, very creative, without a specific objective. For us this is very interesting. And for them, it is interesting to apply and transfer their knowledge on a humanoid robot"
Guillem Alenyà, a scientist at the IRI, explains that it has been an enriching experience. “These humanoid robots, like REEM, are expensive and it is very difficult to have access to them. The company has given us funds, has allowed us to work with the robot and to use their facilities. They also helped us with the robot programation. For the students and for the scientists it is a great opportunity”.
Alenyà adds: “For the company it is interesting that an external group uses and program their robot for doing things they had never imagined. It is a very positive synergy”.
Ricardo Tellez, at Pal Robotics, explains: “We produce service robots that at the moment do very simple things. We are still very far from making these robots do complex things such as cleaning or ironing. Developing these robot abilities in a company is very difficult. It means a lot of resources and time we do not have. But people at university and centres like the IRI do high-level research, very creative, without a specific objective. For us this is very interesting. And for them, it is interesting to apply and transfer their knowledge on a humanoid robot”.
REEM delivering the registration form to the referee in the Robot Inspection.In this transference of knowledge, the team has given REEM the ability to manipulate non-rigid objects -actually, this is one research line at the IRI. They have programmed the robot to be able to pick a jacket from the hand of someone, to hold the jacket by the correct place (the collar) and to hang it from a rack.
Also, the students have programmed REEM to be able to introduce himself to a person, to learn his or her name, to memorize his or her face, to ask what she or he wants to drink, to go to the kitchen, to identify the drink on a table, to pick it up and to take it to the person that asked for it. Another ability given to REEM is the capacity to follow one person wherever she or he goes – until now, REEM, that works as a guide robot, only knew how to follow pre-programmed routes.
These are tasks that combine many abilities: recognizing faces and voice, recognizing objects on a table, grabbing objects, navigation through an unknown environment (moving in a room full of people and objects), manipulation of soft objects...
“And something good of this collaboration”, points out Tellez, “is that the knowledge transfer is done on something that already exists, a commercial product such as this robot REEM”.