For almost 25 years, the goal of the RoboCup has been to build soccer robots capable of winning against the FIFA World Champion of 2050. To foster the participation of the next generation of roboticists, the RoboCupJunior competition takes place in parallel and provides a similar challenge of appropriate difficulty for high school students. RoboCupJunior has three main categories: Soccer, Rescue and OnStage. For the Soccer category, participants need to design, build and program a team of autonomous robots to play soccer against an opponent team of robots. The competition is physical in nature, since it assumes physical robots playing against one another. In 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for a competition of this type to take place, due to obvious restrictions on physical gatherings. To allow for some sort of participation, and inspired by positive experience of the larger RoboCup community, the Organizing Committee of RoboCupJunior Soccer has explored porting a portion of the challenge to a simulated environment. Many of the existing environments, however, are built for higher education/research teams competitions or research, making them complex to deploy and generally unsuitable for high school students. In this paper we present the development of SoccerSim, a simulated environment for RoboCupJunior Soccer, based on the Webots open-source robotics simulator. We also discuss how the participation of students was key for its development and present a summary of the competition rules. We further describe the case study of utilizing SoccerSim first as a testbed for a Demo competition, and later as part of RoboCup Worldwide 2021. The participation of more than 60 teams from over 20 countries suggests that SoccerSim provides an affordable alternative to physical robotics platforms, while being stable enough to support a diverse userbase. The experience of using SoccerSim at RoboCupJunior Worldwide 2021 suggests that a simulated environment significantly lowers the barrier to entry, as evidenced by the participation of many teams that have not participated before. To make it easy for similar competitions to take place in the future, we made the code of SoccerSim available as open-source, as well as the associated tooling required for using it in a tournament.
DOCUMENT
The use of robots as educational tools provides a stimulating environment for students. Some robotics competitions focus on primary and secondary school aged children, and serve as motivation for students to get involved in educational robotics activities. Although very appealing, many students cannot participate on robotics competitions because they cannot afford robotics kits. Hence, several students have no access to educational robotics, especially on developing countries. To minimize this problem and contribute to education equality, we have created RoSoS Robot Soccer Simulator, in which students program virtual robots in a similar way that they would program their real ones. In this chapter we explain some technical details of RoSoS and discuss the implementation of a new league for the robotics competitions: Junior Soccer Simulation league (JSS). Because soccer is the most popular sport in the world, we believe JSS will be a strong motivator for students to get involved with robotics.
DOCUMENT
The use of robots as educational tools provide a stimulating environment for students. Some robotics competitions focus on primary and secondary school aged children, and serve as a motivation factor for students to get involved in educational robotics activities. But, in most competitions students are required to deal with robot design, construction and programming. Although very appealing, many students cannot participate on robotics competitions because they cannot afford robotics kits and their school do not have the necessary equipment. Because of that, several students have no access to educational robotics, especially on developing countries. To minimize this problem and contribute to education equality, we present a proposal for a new league for the robotics competitions: The Junior Soccer Simulation league (JSS). In such a league, students program virtual robots in a similar way that they would program their real ones. Because there is no hardware involved, costs are very low and participants can concentrate on software development and robot's intelligence improvement. Finally, because soccer is the most popular sport in the world, we believe JSS will be a strong motivator for students to get involved with robotics. In this paper we present the simulator that was developed (ROSOS) and discuss some ideas for the adoption of a Junior Soccer Simulation competition.
DOCUMENT
Although causal inference has shown great value in estimating effect sizes in, for instance, physics, medical studies, and economics, it is rarely used in sports science. Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation (TMLE) is a modern method for performing causal inference. TMLE is forgiving in the misspecification of the causal model and improves the estimation of effect sizes using machine-learning methods. We demonstrate the advantage of TMLE in sports science by comparing the calculated effect size with a Generalized Linear Model (GLM). In this study, we introduce TMLE and provide a roadmap for making causal inference and apply the roadmap along with the methods mentioned above in a simulation study and case study investigating the influence of substitutions on the physical performance of the entire soccer team (i.e., the effect size of substitutions on the total physical performance). We construct a causal model, a misspecified causal model, a simulation dataset, and an observed tracking dataset of individual players from 302 elite soccer matches. The simulation dataset results show that TMLE outperforms GLM in estimating the effect size of the substitutions on the total physical performance. Furthermore, TMLE is most robust against model misspecification in both the simulation and the tracking dataset. However, independent of the method used in the tracking dataset, it was found that substitutes increase the physical performance of the entire soccer team.
DOCUMENT
Er is al redelijk wat kennis ten aanzien van kijkgedrag in de sport, maar deze inzichten hebben voornamelijk betrekking op statische situaties. Momenteel zijn er onderzoeken gaande die inzicht proberen te krijgen in het kijkgedrag tijdens dynamische sportsituaties. Dit artikel beschrijft aan de hand van een onderzoek binnen het hockey welke uitdagingen er daarbij zijn.
DOCUMENT
Lectorale rede waarin wordt ingegaan op de manier waarop de mens nu binnen zijn natuurlijke omgeving functioneert. Dit wordt getypeerd als een ‘mismatch’. Tegelijkertijd is de lector er ook van overtuigd dat de technologie uiteindelijk zorgt voor een beter leven.
DOCUMENT
In recent years video game consoles, such as the Nintendo Wii™ and the Microsoft Kinect™, have been introduced into residential facilities. This paper presents a review of current studies documenting the benefits and detriments the Wii could have on adults aged 60 years and over in residential facilities, concentrating on the common uses of the Wii in care facilities: maintaining physical fitness, promoting mental well-being, encouraging social interaction and both physical and mental rehabilitation. Furthermore, this paper discusses the potential use of the Microsoft Kinect in care for older persons. The Wii can have a positive impact on the physical and mental health of older adults living in care facilities, but additional work should still be conducted, including assessing the use of games outside of Wii Sports and Wii Fit and possible non-gaming application of the Wii in care for older adults. Results for the Wii display potential for use of the Kinect in care facilities but further exploration is required to assess the potential physical impact and interaction viability.
DOCUMENT
Quantifying measures of physical loading has been an essential part of performance monitoring within elite able-bodied sport, facilitated through advancing innovative technology. In wheelchair court sports (WCS) the inter-individual variability of physical impairments in the athletes increases the necessity for accurate load and performance measurements, while at the same time standard load monitoring methods (e.g. heart-rate) often fail in this group and dedicated WCS performance measurement methods are scarce. The objective of this review was to provide practitioners and researchers with an overview and recommendations to underpin the selection of suitable technologies for a variety of load and performance monitoring purposes specific to WCS. This review explored the different technologies that have been used for load and performance monitoring in WCS. During structured field testing, magnetic switch based devices, optical encoders and laser systems have all been used to monitor linear aspects of performance. However, movement in WCS is multidirectional, hence accelerations, decelerations and rotational performance and their impact on physiological responses and determination of skill level, is also of interest. Subsequently both for structured field testing as well as match-play and training, inertial measurement units mounted on wheels and frame have emerged as an accurate and practical option for quantifying linear and non-linear movements. In conclusion, each method has its place in load and performance measurement, yet inertial sensors seem most versatile and accurate. However, to add context to load and performance metrics, position-based acquisition devices such as automated image-based processing or local positioning systems are required.
DOCUMENT
Dit essay geeft een systeemvisie op het ontwikkelen van embedded software voor slimme systemen: (mobiele) robots en sensornetwerken.
DOCUMENT
