International SPL 2012 Competitors – RoboCup Standard Platform League

Austrian-Kangaroos	Austria Team Contact: Dietmar Schreiner, Alexander Hofmann, Markus Bader Institutes: Vienna University of Technology – Institute of Computer Languages, Compilers and Languages Group University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien Vienna University of Technology – Automation and Control Institute
Team Profile:	The Austrian Kangaroos are a young team, consisting of undergraduates, graduates and researchers from the Vienna University of Technology and the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien. The Kangaroos participated in RoboCup for the first time in Graz, 2009, where they reached the quarterfinals. Since then several student’s run trough a robotic based education and performed very well. This year the team is very motivated and wants to reach the quarterfinals again.
Research Topics:	computer vision, computational intelligence, social and management aspects in mid to large scale project teams.
Team Report:	https://sites.google.com/a/austrian-kangaroos.com/public_en/download/tqp2012_austrian-kangaroos.pdf

AUTMan	Iran Team Contact: Soroush Sadeghnejad Institutes: Humanoid Robotic Center, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran PolyTechnic)
Team Profile:	AUTMan NAO team is one of the active research groups which are working on Standard Platform robots at Humanoid Robotic Laboratory in Amirkabir Robotic Center of Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT). AUTMan team has formed to begin his project due to the basis of experience of Humanoid League which has been in progress since June 2010 and Soccer Simulation league which is active since 2004. AUTMan NAO Team consists of undergraduate and graduate students in the departments of Computer Engineering and Information Technology, Mechanical and Electrical Engineerings.
Research Topics:	Gait Generation, Computer Vision, Probabilistic State Estimation, Machine Learning, Multi-Robot Localization, Motion Behavior.
Team Report:	AUTMan2012-TDP.pdf

Bembelbots	Germany Team Contact: Dipl. Inf. Markus Meissner Institutes: Joint Robotics Lab, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Team Profile:	Team consists of graduate and undergraduate students of Goethe University. The Bembelbots participated in RoboCup German Open since 2010 and have successfully qualified for RoboCup 2012.
Research Topics:	Self localization, Image classification, Object recognition
Team Report:	N/A

Berlin United – NaoTH	Germany Team Contact: Heinrich Mellmann Institutes: Department for Cognitive Robotics, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin
Team Profile:	The Nao Team Humboldt (NaoTH?) is part of the recently founded joint research group “Berlin United” between the RoboCup research groups of the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin and the Freie Universitat Berlin (FUmanoids, KidSize League). The team was founded at the end of 2007 as the successor of the Aibo Team Humboldt (ATH) and consists of students and researchers from the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin. The ATH was participating in RoboCup from 1999 to 2008. As part of the German Team they won three times the World Championship in the Four-Legged League and twice the technical challenge. Currently, the NaoTH participates in both, SPL and S3L with the common core program. In 2010 we got the vice world champion in S3D. In both leagues we also achieved good results in a number of local competitions and technical challenges, e.g., in 2010 we won the German Open and AutCup in S3D and the IranOpen 2011 in SPL.
Research Topics:	World Modeling (selflocalization, local object modeling, semantic modeling), Dynamic Motion Control (walk, ball handling), Narrowing the gap between simulation and real world (we are striving to bring the SPL and S3D closer together), Attention Control
Team Report:	NaoTH11Report.pdf

B-Human	Germany Team Contact: Thomas Roefer Institutes: DFKI Bremen University of Bremen
Team Profile:	B-Human consists of students from the University of Bremen in their advanced study period and researchers from the DFKI Bremen. B-Human participated in the Humanoid Kid Size League at RoboCup 2007 and 2008. We also participated as BreDoBrothers, a cooperation with the TU Dortmund, in the Standard Platform League in 2008 as well as in the Humanoid Kid Size League 2006. Since 2009, B-Human won the RoboCup German Open and the RoboCup World Championchip three times in a row. We also won the RoboCup Technical Challenge in 2009 and B-Human team members earned the Best Paper Award at RoboCup Symposium 2010.
Research Topics:	Probabilistic state estimation, real-time computer vision, robot simulation, humanoid walking
Team Report:	B-Human Team Report 2011

Cerberus	Turkey Team Contact: H.Levent Akin Institutes: Department of Computer Engineering, Bogazici University
Team Profile:	Team consists of graduate and undergraduate students of BU AILAB. Cerberus participated in RoboCup since 2001 except the year 2004. Cerberus was ranked 1st in the Technical Challenges in 2005 and made it to the quarterfinals in 2006 and 2008. Cerberus took the fourth place in RoboCup German Open 2007.
Research Topics:	Self localization, multi-agent task allocation, path planning and obstacle avoidance, reinforcement learning, POMDPs
Team Report:	Cerberus2012-TDP.pdf

Cuauhpipiltin	Mexico Team Contact: Marco Morales Institutes: Robotics Laboratory, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) Computer Science Group, Centro de Investigacion en Matematicas A.C. (CIMAT) Department of Mathematics, Universidad de Guanajuato (DEMAT-UG) School of Engineering, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV) Saltillo
Team Profile:	The Cuauhpipiltin SPL team is an international RoboCup 2012 SPL participant. Our project is a collaborative effort of five renowned mexican institutions: ITAM, CIMAT, UNAM, DEMAT-UG, and CINVESTAV. The team consists of undergraduate students from ITAM, UNAM and DEMAT-UG and master students from CIMAT as well as five researchers. Our team was founded as the Eagle Knights team in ITAM in 2003, competing with the Aibo robots in RoboCup 2005, 2006, and 2007, and with the Nao Robots in RoboCup 2008 and 2009. This year, we compite under the original nahua name Cuauhpipiltin from cuauhtli (eagle) and pilli (noble person), one of the two high ranking mexica military orders.
Research Topics:	Vision, localization, motion planning and control
Team Report:	tdp_spl_ek_robocup2012.pdf

Dutch Nao Team	The Netherlands Team Contact: Duncan ten Velthuis, Camiel Verschoor Institutes: Universiteit van Amsterdam, Faculty of Science, Informatics Institute Technische Universiteit Delft, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Technische Universiteit Delft, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science
Team Profile:	The Dutch Nao Team consists of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bachelor and Master Students, supported by a senior staff-member. The Dutch Nao Team debuted in the Standard Platform League (SPL) competition at the German Open 2010. The same year the first research paper about the Nao was published. In 2011 the Dutch Nao Team made its breakthrough by qualifying for the World RoboCup in Istanbul.
Research Topics:	Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Motion, Communication, World Modeling, Probabilistic Robotics
Team Report:	DutchNaoTeam2011-Report.pdf

Edinferno	United Kingdom Team Contact: Subramanian Ramamoorthy Institutes: Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour, School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh
Team Profile:	The team consists of graduate and undergraduate students at the School of Informatics, lead by Dr. Subramanian Ramamoorthy. Edinferno is the first UK-based team to participate in RoboCup SPL, and will be making its second appearance at RoboCup 2012, having made its debut at RoboCup 2011 in Istanbul.
Research Topics:	Autonomous decision making under uncertainty, Learning in single and multi-agent environments, Online motion synthesis, Probabilistic localization and vision
Team Report:	N/A

Nao-Team HTWK	Germany Team Contact: Rico Tilgner Institutes: Faculty of Computer Science, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Leipzig University of Applied Sciences
Team Profile:	The Nao-Team HTWK is a RoboCup team that consists of graduate and undergraduate students of Leipzig University of Applied Sciences and was founded in 2009. The team participated in RoboCup 2009-2011 as well as the RoboCup German Open 2009-2011.
Research Topics:	Evolutionary Algorithms, Biped Walking, Artificial Intelligence, Multi-Robot Coordination, Computer Vision, Localization
Team Report:	report2011.pdf

Kouretes	Greece Team Contact: Michail G. Lagoudakis Institutes: Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete
Team Profile:	Kouretes is the RoboCup team of the Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece. The team consists mainly of undergraduate students working on their diploma thesis on selected robocup-related topics. Kouretes participates in RoboCup competitions since 2006;the team ranked 2nd in the MSRS contest at RoboCup 2007, 1st in the SPL-MSRS league at RoboCup 2008, 3rd in the SPL-Nao league at RoboCup 2008, among the top 8 teams in the SPL-Webots league at RoboCup 2008, 6th in the SPL-Webots league at RoboCup 2009, and 2nd in the SPL Open Challenge at RoboCup 2011.
Research Topics:	Motion Design, Reliable Perception, Model-Based Behavior Development, Egocentric Mapping and Path Planning
Team Report:	Kouretes 2012 Team Description Paper

L3M	France Spain Team Contact: Vincent HUGEL Institutes: Laboratoire d’Ingenierie des Systemes de Versailles (LISV), Universite de Versailles (UVSQ), France Laboratoire d’Informatique Avancee de Saint-Denis (LIASD), Universite Paris 8 (UP8), France Institut des Sciences et Techniques de Yvelines (ISTY), UVSQ, France Departamento de Ingenieria de la Informacion y las Comunicaciones, Grupo de Investigacion de Ingenieria Aplicada (GIIA), Universidad de Murcia, Espana Instituto Universitario de Automatica e Informatica Industrial (AI2), Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), Espana
Team Profile:	The L3M team (alias “Les Trois Mousquetaires”, “Los Tres Mosqueteros”, “The Three Musketeers”) will be a French-Spanish joint team composed of master students and professors from Universities and institutes of both countries. French members are within “Universite de Versailles”, “Universite Paris 8” and “ISTY” Versailles University Engineering school. Spain members come from “Universidad de Murcia” and “Universidad Politecnica de Valencia”. The French and Spanish members participated in the AIBO league for several years. Best results of L3M participations in RoboCup include 1st rank in 1999, 2nd in 2001, and fourth in 2002. The team Los Hidalgos from Spain won the RomeCup in 2010 in the SPL.
Research Topics:	Mobile robotics, legged locomotion, mechanics, real time embedded systems, sensorization and perception, embedded vision.
Team Report:	N/A

Mi-Pal	Australia Spain Team Contact: Vlad Estivill-Castro Institutes: School of Informaiton adn Communicaiton technologyCT – Griffith University Departament de Tecnologies de la Informacio i les Comunicacions – Univeritat Pomepu Fabra
Team Profile:	Team consists of graduate and undergraduate students. Mi-Pal participated in RoboCup since 2002 except the years 2007-2010.
Research Topics:	The Artificial Intelligence Group at the Department of Technology, in Universitat Pompeu Fabra, studies computational models of reasoning, action, learning, and perception. The research interests of the academic team at Griffith University are human-robot interaction, vision, multi-agent systems, reasoning, and learning for intelligent mobile agents. Our expertise has continued to be the development of a flexible and generic software architecture and our research publications demonstrate this (see list of publications). More recently our research has produced capabilities to model behaviors of robots at a high level description by combining reactive mechanisms (modeled by finite state machines) and non-monotonic reasoning (represented by logics like Plausible Logic).

MRL-SPL	Iran Team Contact: Ehsan Hashemi Institutes: Mechatronics Research Lab., Qazvin Azad University
Team Profile:	MRL-SPL team is one of research divisions of the Mechatronics Research Laboratory formed in 2010 and consists of graduate and undergraduate students of Qazvin Azad University. This team is also international RoboCup 2012 SPL participant. MRL works under supervision of Qazvin Azad University and its main research interests are artificial intelligence and robotics
Research Topics:	Bipedal Locomotion, Trajectory Planning, Optimum Preview Control, Multi-Agent Coordination, Modeling and Control
Team Report:	http://www.mrl-spl.ir/files/MRL-SPL_TDP_2011.pdf

Nao Devils Dortmund	Germany Team Contact: Stefan Tasse, Oliver Urbann Institutes: Robotics Research Institute, TU Dortmund
Team Profile:	The team consists of researchers and students of TU Dortmund University. We participate in RoboCup competitions since 2002 with several different teams: Microsoft Hellhounds and as part of the German Team (4-Legged-League), DoHBots (Humanoid League), and BreDoBrothers (together with University Bremen) and now as Nao Devils Dortmund in the Standard Platform League.
Research Topics:	biped walking, computer vision, stochastic filtering
Team Report:	TeamReport-2011-NaoDevilsDortmund.pdf

Northern Bites	USA Team Contact: Eric Chown Institutes: Department of Computer Science, Bowdoin College
Team Profile:	A completely undergraduate team from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, USA, the Northern Bites have been competing in RoboCup since 2006. The Northern Bites earned first place in 2007 with the Aibo, 3rd in 2008, and returned to the SPL final in 2009 to place second with the Nao. In 2010, the Northern Bites advanced to the quarterfinals.
Research Topics:	Robot vision, cognitive robotics, gait learning, bipedal motion, self localization
Team Report:	N/A

NTU RoboPAL	Taiwan Team Contact: Chieh-Chih (Bob) Wang Institutes: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taiwan University
Team Profile:	The team consists of graduate and undergraduate students of the Robot Perception and Learning Lab. NTU RoboPal participated in RoboCup SPL in 2009, 2010, and 2011, and made it to the quarterfinal in 2009 and won the third place in 2011.
Research Topics:	Multi-robot localization and tracking, motion planning, activity recognition, robot perception, machine learning
Team Report:	NTURoboPAL_TeamReport2011.pdf

Portuguese Team	Portugal Team Contact: Joao Silva, Nuno Lau Institutes: University of Aveiro IEETA – Institute of Electronics and Telematics Engineering of Aveiro University of Porto University of Minho LIACC – Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Lab. – Porto INESC-P – Institute for Systems and Computers Engineering – Porto
Team Profile:	The Portuguese Team is composed by members of the three Portuguese teams that achieved better results in RoboCup European and World championships: FC Portugal, CAMBADA and 5DPO. Researchers from three different universities (Universities of Aveiro, Porto and Minho) in Portugal join efforts to build a new research oriented and competitive SPL team.
Research Topics:	Multi-Agent Systems (MAS);coordination in MAS;Agent based simulation;Game analysis, strategic reasoning and tactical modeling;Multi-robot monitoring and debugging;Sensor and information fusion;Real time image processing, including stereo vision;Bridging the gap between simulated and real robotics.
Team Report:	PortugueseTeam_TDP2012.pdf

RoboCanes	USA Team Contact: Ubbo Visser Institutes: Department of Computer Science, University of Miami
Team Profile:	The Team tconsists of graduate and undergraduate students of the AI and Games LAB. RoboCanes participated in RoboCup since 2010 in the 3D Soccer Simulation League and was quarter finalist in 2010 and 2011. RoboCanes won the German Open 2011 and was runner-up at the Iran Open 2012. The team is new to the SPL.
Research Topics:	Self localization, motions and obstacle avoidance, parameter optimization, reinforcement learning
Team Report:	N/A

rUNSWift	Australia Team Contact: Benhard Hengst, Maurice Pagnucco Institutes: School of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales
Team Profile:	UNSW had success in the 4-Legged League of RoboCup when they participated from 1999 to 2006 – from eight attempts they made the final six times, winning the league three times and coming second another three times, despite having an entirely new team of undergraduate students each year. Since 2008 UNSW has competed in the Standard Platform League, where they were quarter finalists in 2008 and placed 2nd in 2010. They were also 1st in the challenges in 2010 and third in 2011.
Research Topics:	Machine learning, multi-robot coordination, human-robot interaction, reinforcement learning, AI planning.
Team Report:	http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~robocup/

SpelBots	USA Team Contact: Andrew B. Williams Institutes: Department of Computer &Informaiton Sciences, Spelman College
Team Profile:	The SpelBots team consists of undergraduate women students in computer science and engineering, mathematics, physics, and biology. SpelBots have competed in international and local/regional RoboCup events since 2005. The team will compete in the RoboCup 2012 U.S. Open and RoboCup 2012 Mexico City in the Standard Platform League.
Research Topics:	multi-robot task allocation, healthcare robotics, human-robot interaction, artificial intelligence, and K-12 robotics education.
Team Report:	N/A

SPQR	Italy Team Contact: Daniele Nardi, Luca Iocchi Institutes: Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering Antonio Ruberti, Sapienza University of Rome
Team Profile:	SPQR is the group of the Faculty of Computer Engineering at Sapienza University of Rome in Italy, that is involved in RoboCup competitions since 1998 in different leagues: Middle-size 1998-2002, Four-legged 2000-2007, Real-rescue-robots 2003-2006, @Home in 2006, Virtual-rescue since 2006 and Standard platform League (Nao Division) since 2008. SPQR team members have served RoboCup organization in many ways: Daniele Nardi served as Exec, Trustee and currently as President of RoboCup Federation and was RoboCup Symposium co-chair in 2004, Luca Iocchi is Exec member of RoboCup@Home since 2008 and was RoboCup Symposium co-chair in 2008. SPQR team member published a total of 14 papers in RoboCup Symposia (including a best paper award in 2006), in addition to many other publications about RoboCup related activities in other international journals and conferences in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. SPQR team includes a Post-Doc, an experienced PhD student, a research assistant and several undergraduate students (including some non-Italian members).
Research Topics:	Self localization, Multi-Agent task allocation, obstacle avoidance and Reinforcement learning
Team Report:	spqrreport.pdf

TJArk	China Team Contact: CHEN Qijun Institutes: School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Tongji University
Team Profile:	TJArk was established in 2004 as a part of the Lab of Robot and Intelligent Control of Tongji University in China,and participated in RoboCup for the first time in 2006. We entered the quarter finals in RoboCup 2007 and RoboCup 2008. And we entered the eighth finals in the Standard Platform of RoboCup 2009.
Research Topics:	Machine Vision, Motion Control of Biped Robot, Machine Learning, Self Localization,Multi-agent System .etc.
Team Report:	N/A

TT-UT Austin Villa	USA Team Contact: Todd Hester Institutes: Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Computer Science, Texas Tech University
Team Profile:	Our team is a collaboration between Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at Austin. We participated in the Aibo league starting in 2003 and started with the Naos in 2007. We won the 2009 SPL US Open and made the quarterfinals in RoboCup 2009. We won the 2010 SPL US Open and won 3rd place at RoboCup 2010.
Research Topics:	Self localization, multi-agent task allocation, path planning and obstacle avoidance, reinforcement learning, POMDPs
Team Report:	report.pdf

UChile	Chile Team Contact: Javier Ruiz del Solar Institutes: Advanced Mining Technology Center, Universidad de Chile
Team Profile:	The UChile robotics team is an effort of the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Universidad de Chile in order to foster research in mobile robotics. The team is involved in RoboCup competitions since 2003 in different leagues: Four-legged 2003-2007, @Home in 2007-2010, Humanoid in 2007-2010, and Standard Platform League in 2008-2010.
Research Topics:	Mobile robotics and computer vision: Self localization, perception, navigation, learning and mobile robot simulation.
Team Report:	[TDP.pdf]

UPennalizers	USA Team Contact: Daniel D. Lee Institutes: GRASP Lab, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pensylvania
Team Profile:	The team consists of graduate and undergraduate students of the University of Pennsylvania lead by Dr Daniel Lee of the GRASP Lab. The UPennalizers participated in the RoboCup SPL competition from 1999 through 2005 and returned in 2009 with a second place finish at the US Open. This year, the UPennalizers team is an international RoboCup 2012 SPL participant as well as a 2012 US Open SPL participant.
Research Topics:	Self localization, path planning and obstacle avoidance, feedback based walk/motion engine, communication and collaboration
Team Report:	UPennalizers2012-TDP.pdf

WPI Warriors	USA Team Contact: Sonia Chernova, David Kent, Quinten Palmer Institutes: Department of Computer Science, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Team Profile:	The WPI Warriors consists of undergraduate and first-year graduate students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The team first competed at RoboCup 2011 in the Standard Platform League.
Research Topics:	Multi-Robot Coordination, Probabalistic Localization, Computer Vision, 3D Visualization
Team Report:	N/A