On June 15, Kazan Federal University hosted a unique and unusual event – a robofootball match, which was confined to coincide with the first game in Kazan as part of the 2018 World Cup (June 16).
The robofootball was held on the territory of the Institute of Engineering (KFU). Two teams including three robots each met on the field. Students and employees of the Laboratory of intelligent robotic systems (LIRS) worked on the software for the robots of the ITIS team. The game consisted of two halves of 10 minutes and a penalty shootout.
Currently robofootball is not the most dynamic action: robots walked around the field in search of the ball, and as soon as they found it, they tried to hit it. However, there were some curiosities: the "players" periodically fell before the pass because of the slippery surface (artificial grass) or they clashed with each other.
Two halves of 10 minutes each ended in a draw, and it was decided to hold a penalty shootout, as a result of which the ITIS robots won with a score of 2:0.
A lot of spectators came to watch the first robofootball in Kazan, many of whom came with children. When the ITIS "players" were preparing to play a penalty shootout, a little boy approached the ball and hit it into the opponent's goal instead of the robot.
Despite the importance of the event and the competitive format of the game, the training match was held in a friendly atmosphere. Everyone who prepared robots for the game from the Institute of Engineering and the LIRS noticed the results of their and others' work, noted each other's progress and agreed to cooperate in order to prepare teams together to participate in Russian international competitions in robofootball next year.
The main goal of the last training match was to watch robots’s progress on the field in a team game. We tracked how the algorithms written by the staff of the institutes work, what needs to be corrected and what to pay more attention to.
Ayrat Khasyanov, a Director of the Higher Institute of ITIS, emphasized the importance and peculiarity of the last match:
"This is a milestone of preliminary and long-term work. Moreover, this is the first match of robots developed at KFU (the Institute of Engineering) with robots programmed at KFU (Higher Institute of ITIS). For the first time the match with robots took place in Kazan. For the first time a human took part in this match and even scored a goal for robots. Today was the day when a lot happened for the first time not only for Kazan University, but for Kazan as a whole".
Professor Evgeni Magid, a Head of the Laboratory of intelligent robotic systems, notes that the friendly match was interesting, and the LRS robots showed a good result:
"The robots of the two institutes were exhibited for the first time on such a field. We attended a historic event: a meeting of two different robot teams in Kazan. The audience showed great interest and patience. The last match was interesting for roboticists, because you can see how algorithms work. Meanwhile, it may seem boring for the audience: robots take a long time to find the ball, hit somewhere to the side. But, in fact, today the audience is imbued with this game, new technologies. Our robots hit the ball hard, which helped it reach the goal. Usually robots have problems with the force of impact, and the ball does not reach the goal. But our players showed an excellent result, hitting the goal from almost a meter away".
About the robofootball of the Higher Institute of ITIS in other media:
Video:
Match Announcement: