Soccer dogs compete to score goals in robot technology

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, June 8, 2006

BY BRYAN ROURKE
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Root for robots. Support science. Watch soccer.

The World Cup begins tomorrow. That's the warm-up. People play. It's nothing you haven't seen before.

Next week, however, the fun and foreshadowing begins: RoboCup.

"You say robot soccer, it captures the imagination," says Chad Jenkins, assistant professor of computer science at Brown University.

Robot soccer, imagine that. Actually, you can see it. The 10th annual RoboCup is in Germany -- in the same country and at the same time as this year's World Cup, which is no coincidence.

One day, engineers hope, the cups will converge. Men will meet machines. And the machines will win.

Laugh if you like. Jenkins isn't anymore.

"At first, I thought this is crazy," he says. "There's no way."

Now Jenkins says something else: "Yes. It's possible." He's one of thousands of scientists worldwide working toward the day -- sometime in 2050, according to RoboCup officials -- when autonomous humanoid robots will beat humans at their favorite game.

Jenkins is the coach of the Brown RoboCup Club. The four-person team just completed its inaugural year with a national competition last month. In that tournament, and most others right now, machines play machines in a slow, awkward game of miniaturized remedial soccer.

But these are computers. They develop quickly. So while RoboCup is in its infancy, it's growing up quickly.

"Fifteen years ago, these machines didn't even exist," says Mark Moseley, a Brown master's student in computer science and a Brown RoboCup Club member. "Look how far we've come."

The public got a good look last month. The Brown club gave a RoboCup demonstration. People huddled around an artificial-carpet field the size of a small bedroom and watched four-on-four soccer performed by robots resembling dogs.

Inside each dog is a camera and a computer program that makes it respond to what it sees. Follow the ball. Put it in the goal.

Right now, the process isn't pretty.

"When we competed a few weeks ago, even the best team, the world champion from Germany, was making penalties," Jenkins says. "There are penalties all over the place. Getting the robots to obey the rules is the first step."

And getting them to beat humans is many, many steps away.

"There are a lot of problems that have to be solved," says Brendan Dickinson, a master's student in computer science and Brown RoboCup member.

Balance is a big issue. That's why teams new to the sport usually start in the robotic dogs division. Here, computerized canines (about the size of Shih Tzus) are souped up by scientists to respond to external stimuli: soccer opponents, a soccer ball, a soccer goal, etc.

"People never believe us when we travel with the dogs," says Daniel Grollman, a doctoral student in computer science and a Brown RoboCup member. "People say, 'What's that?' It's a dog to play soccer. 'No, really what is that?' "

At the very high-tech end of the robotic soccer world are two-legged humanoids, which not only have to track opponents, teammates, the ball and the goal, but coordinate their movement and weight while on one foot. And they have to do it all by themselves.

OPERATING A ROBOTIC dog's difficult enough.

"It's impossible to do anything," said Peter Dentone, a Brown freshman. "When the dog moves, everything's shaking."

Dentone took the controls of one of the robo dogs during the demonstration. All the other dogs performed autonomously. Dentone used a sort of videogame joystick to maneuver his dog, sitting with his back to the playing field, looking at the game action on a computer screen receiving transmissions from a tiny camera inside his dog's head.

"It's hard to tell how close to the (orange) ball you are," Dentone said. "I would see orange and shoot. My dog was apparently flailing around behind me."

Performance problems will be identified, Jenkins said, then systematically addressed. It happened with chess. IBM designed a computer called Deep Blue that beat former world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.

But soccer's different. The field's in flux. The options are infinite. The challenge is harder.

MOST NOTABLY, the computers don't merely need to compute, but move -- fast and efficiently.

"Responding in real time in a dynamic environment makes soccer robotics different than a chess challenge," Jenkins said.

Moving robots aren't new. Automobile assembly lines have used them for years to weld cars. But that involves repetitive, prescribed, pre-programmed movements.

However, there are also roving robots. Jenkins has a small one on his office floor. It's a vacuum.

"My daughter (2 1/2) makes an absolute mess," Jenkins said. "I turn the vacuum on, go to class and it picks up all the Cheerios."

SOCCER WOULD BE computers' breakfast of champions. That's what Hiroaki Kitano thought in 1991. The Japanese scientist was in residency at Carnegie Mellon University. He was working with computers, making them perform physical tasks.

"It was very boring," he says on the Web site www.robocup2006.org. "I thought it made sense to define an interesting, challenging task that when implemented would demand the robots to move faster."

Soccer, the world's most popular sport, was the answer. After a five-year organizational gestation, RoboCup was officially born.

THE REAL ATHLETES are mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists and mechanical, electrical and material engineers. And the goal isn't really soccer; it's everything.

"A robot takes in sensory information, makes a decision and tells its motors what to do," Jenkins said.

Kick the ball.

Or, better yet, wash the windows. Pick up after the dog. Or watch the child.

"For structural tasks, it makes a lot of sense," Jenkins said. "A robot could follow your son or daughter around to make sure he or she doesn't get in trouble."

Electric sockets, glass vases and sharp objects would be bad. A robot could be good at identifying those potential hazards.

"The goal is to have robots that help you in your daily life," Jenkins said. "What makes that a moving target is 'What will your daily life be like?' The robot should never be the primary decision maker."

CUE THE MUSIC, the eerie stuff from science-fiction flicks. Frankenstein goes high-tech. Robots rule.

"That's blown out of proportion," Jenkins said. "A lot of what these systems are are just statistical engines. They only make the decisions that we allow them to make. You can always limit the scope of what the robot is doing."

There are all kinds of applications, from recreational to vocational, including in the military. But before people start worrying about their job security and the need for people when computers can do everything from playing chess and soccer to building cars and shooting guns, Jenkins says relax.

"I don't think robots are making humans irrelevant," he said. "I think they're putting humans in a position to do something new."

At the moment, however, humans are still trying to create these movable, multi-tasking autonomous robots. The RoboCup is June 14-20 in Bremen, Germany. More than 300 teams from more than three dozen countries are expected to compete.

THE BROWN ROBOCUP Club won't be there. It didn't qualify last month in Atlanta in the RoboCup U.S. Open, which involved about a dozen college teams.

Nevertheless, the experience was a good one for Brown RoboCup players.

"Everyone is very friendly," said Ethan Leland, a Brown club member who graduated with a master's degree in computer science last month. "We'd say, 'How did you get your dog to do that?' And they'd tell you. Everyone in robotics just wants to help further the field."

While the computers are under development, the soccer playing conditions are greatly simplified. The ball is orange for better visibility. The goals are different colors (one's blue, the other's yellow) so the computers don't get disoriented and score on themselves. And regardless of available natural light, the playing lights are electric.

It has to do with the color spectrum.

"Outside light is blue," Moseley said. At the U.S Open, the indoor fields were beside picture windows, and "the dogs saw the blue goal everywhere. And a cloud would go by and the dogs would stop."

At the moment, RoboCup is kind of like inanimate kiddie soccer. One robot gets the ball and tries to shoot it. No one passes.

"No team has gotten that far," Moseley said. "But they're trying."

In the dog division (actually it's called the four-legged division) of the U.S. Open, Brown tied for last among seven schools, which isn't as bad as it sounds. Very few schools are even able to present a team, much less compete with one.

Brown finished the tournament with a record of 0-2-2.

"But the crucial factor was we scored two goals," Jenkins said. "If you don't score, there's no record that your team is functional in any fashion."

brourke@projo.com / (401) 277-7267