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Robotic technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, and the focus of robot development in various fields has shifted toward Industry 4.0. Various types of robots have gradually been introduced to everyday life, including interactive robots, robot vacuum cleaners, and rescue robots. In recent years, the Taiwanese government has actively promoted the cultivation of programming ability and decided to incorporate courses related to programming and algorithm in the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-year Basic Education. The government also plans to introduce courses about living technology to the science and technology domain in the 2019 academic year.
The number of Lego players is increasing each year. This study observed that the types of competitions held by Taoyuan City vary greatly every year. Therefore, this study focused on the soccer robot competition, hoping to reduce the entry barrier of this competition.
This study employed the software LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 to conduct a series of testing and shared the testing results with the neighboring junior high schools and vocational high schools, helping them participate in the soccer robot competition of the 2019 World Robot Olympiad (WRO) held by Taoyuan City. This study then identified the shortcomings of the designed robots and attempted to develop an ideal program for students interested in creating soccer robots.
In WRO, a soccer robot as an attacker should possess the abilities to (1) track the soccer ball, (2) determine compass orientations, (3) take response measures when being stuck in a wall, and (4) shoot the ball at the goal. The first ability was achieved as follows: The IR seeker V2 sensor tracks the infrared electronic ball. The ball surface is covered with 20 infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which emitt infrared rays according to the direction and power of the ball for effective algorithm computation. The ability to determine compass orientation was achieved as follows: A compass sensor determined the absolute and relative positions, providing information for the robot to decide effective attack strategies. This function is also designed to prevent the robot from mistakenly shooting the ball at its own goal. The third ability was achieved as follows: According to the first paragraph of Article 6 of the game rules, if a robot demonstrates incorrect movement or does not respond to the ball, it would be determined as a broken robot by the referee. To avoid such a situation, this study installed the motor provided in LEGO EV3 in the robot; this motor is equipped with an angle detector. When the motor stops running for an extensive period, a mechanism is initiated to prevent the robot from becoming stuck in the wall. The ability to shoot at the goal was achieved as follows: A compass orientation function determines whether the robot is facing the opponent’s goal. This function is integrated with the function of IRseekerV2 to identify the ball direction and power, allowing the robot to determine an effective shooting strategy. In the experiment, a light source sensor was also incorporated in the robot to ensure that the robot stays in front of the infrared electronic soccer ball.
This study employed the aforementioned methods to develop a robot that serves as an attacker in a soccer game.
A soccer robot playing defense in the WRO should possess the abilities to (1) defend when the ball enters the defensive zone, (2) correct its direction, and (3) avoid crossing the penalty area. The first ability was achieved as follows: The IR seeker V2 sensor collects data regarding the direction and power of the infrared electronic ball to determine whether the ball has entered a preset region. This enables the robot to defend effectively against the opponents. The direction correction ability was defined as follows: When the ball moves away from the robot, the robot can correct its direction errors and face the opponent’s goal. The ability to avoid crossing the penalty area was achieved by programing the robot to avoid crossing the black line marking the penalty area.
This study employed the aforementioned methods to develop a robot that can perform effective defense in a soccer game.
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