Video: DARwIn finale at RoboCup 2012

The finale match between Team DARwIn from Virginia Tech/University of Pennsylvania and Japan's CiT Brians, from BotSport.

Virginia Tech repeats RoboCup soccer win in Adult- and Kid-sized divisions

Above, CHARLI gets a hug from RoMeLa founder/director Dennis Hong
and master's student Coleman Knobe.

First published at www.vt.edu, 28 June 2012.

BLACKSBURG, Va., June 28, 2012 – Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory dominated RoboCup’s international humanoid robot soccer competition for the second year in a row, once again wining the Adult- and Kid-sized humanoid soccer robot competitions.
The robotics laboratory, part of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, took first place finishes in the Adult Size class with the 5-foot humanoid robot CHARLI-2 and the Kid Size class with the miniature-humanoid-robots DARwIn-OP. The latter team was a joint effort of Virginia Tech undergraduate and graduate engineering students and their counterparts from the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Engineering in Philadelphia.

“This is two in a row,” said an excited Dennis Hong, founder and director of the Virginia Tech robotics lab, and an associate professor of mechanical engineering, as he and his students cheered, hugged and posed for pictures at Mexico City’s World Trade Center, where the 16th annual RoboCup competition took place. Added Jack Newton of Blacksburg,  a rising senior in mechanical engineering, and a member of Team CHARLI: “It’s amazing. Actually, I’m kind of speechless.”
Team DARwIn, in the final match of the Kid-Sized competitions, beat Japan’s CiT Brians, 8-2, on June 23.  Earlier in the day, Team CHARLI, comprised only of Virginia Tech students, won 3-0 over Tsinghua Hephaestus of China.

A combined Virginia Tech/University of Pennsylvania team also entered, for the first time, the Mid-Sized humanoid robot division, commonly referred to as Teen-Sized, but did not make final rounds. The robots were built from remainder parts of robots at the respective Blacksburg and Philadelphia campuses, said Hong.

An earlier incarnation of CHARLI-2 won the Louis Vuitton Cup at RoboCup 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey, bringing it to Blacksburg, Va., and the United States, for the first time. This year, a German team was selected as the winner of the cup. During its stay at Virginia Tech, the cup was housed at Randolph Hall in a display case with the first version of CHARLI in the main lobby.

RoboCup is considered one of the most respected competitions in the robotics research community, and proposes a soccer match between full-size humanoid robots against the human World Cup human champions -- and win -- by the year 2050. In addition to the soccer portions, RoboCup also features competitions in robot rescue efforts, robotic simulation, and a robot dance competition for youth.
CHARLI-2 (that’s for Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous Robot with Learning Intelligence) is the second in a series of adult-sized, autonomous humanoid robots built at Virginia Tech. The first version, known as CHARLI-L (the "L" is for lightweight) debuted in spring 2010, and made national headlines, appearing on the cover of Popular Science and Robot magazines. More recently, CHARLI-2 appeared on the cover of The Washington Post’s Sunday magazine, in November 2011.

It is the second year in a row that the laboratory has used and won with the DARwIn-OP humanoid robots, developed together with Purdue University, University of Pennsylvania, and the robotics company, Robotis Co., with sponsorship from the National Science Foundation. About 400 units are currently being used world-wide for robotics research and education, according to Hong.

DARwIn-OP proved quite popular at this year’s RoboCup. A total of eight teams used the OP ’bots, which are a fully open source design -- both software and hardware. All info on the hardware is to be shared online for free, including detailed plans and drawings, manuals for fabrication and assembly. The Japanese team that played Team DARwIn in the final round built their own robots.

Hong started project DARwIn (that’s Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligent) in 2003 to study human locomotion and humanoid robot design. DARwIn 1 was introduced in 2004 and was a revolutionary humanoid robot prototype at the time, and was followed by several incarnations since.

The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college's 6,000 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a "hands-on, minds-on" approach to engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 2,000 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study such as biomedical engineering, state-of-the-art microelectronics, and nanotechnology. Virginia Tech, the most comprehensive university in Virginia, is dedicated to quality, innovation, and results to the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.

Team DARwIn repeats win at RoboCup in Kid-Size division

The combined Virginia Tech and University of Pennsylvania teams for
CHARLI and DARwIn.

Following CHARLI’s repeat win in the Adult-Size division of RoboCup 2012’s robot soccer competition, the United States’ Team DARwIn also scored a repeat win in the Kid-Size robot leagues. The team won in a final match against Japan’s CiT Brians, 8-2 on Saturday in Mexico City.

Team DARwIn is a joint venture between Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory and the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP laboratory. 


It is the second year in a row that RoMeLa has used and won with theDARwIn-OP soccer-playing humanoid robots developed together with Purdue Univ., Univ. Penn, and ROBOTIS Co. sponsored by NSF. About 400 units are currently being used world-wide for robotics research and education. 


A total of eight teams at this year’s RoboCup competition used the OP ’bots, which are now open-sourced and also available for purchase. It is a fully open source design -- both software and hardware. All info on the hardware is to be shared on-line for free, including detailed plans and drawings, manuals for fabrication and assembly.

Under director and founder Dennis Hong, RoMeLA started project DARwIn (that’s Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligent) in 2003 to study human locomotion and humanoid robot design. DARwIn 1 was introduced in 2004 and was a revolutionary humanoid robot prototype at the time, and was followed by several incarnations since. 

CHARLI wins Adult-Sized soccer competition for second year

Above, CHARLI gets a hug from RoMeLa founder/director Dennis Hong
and master's student Coleman Knobe.

For the second year in a row Virginia Tech’s CHARLI-2 (that’s for Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous Robot with Learning Intelligence) has won the Adult-Sized Humanoid Robot Soccer competition at RoboCup.


CHARLI in 2011 won the same contest, as well as the Louis Vuitton Humanoid Cup, the competition’s version of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s World Cup, during his debut year at robot soccer. He is the second in a series of adult-sized, autonomous humanoid robots build at Virginia Tech. 


The first version, known as CHARLI-L (the "L" is for lightweight) debuted in spring 2010, and made national headlines, appearing on the cover of “Popular Science” and in “Robot” magazine, among several other publications. The “Washington Post” featured CHARLI -2 on the cover of its Sunday magazine in November 2011. 


This year’s Team CHARLI-2 included Michael Hopkins, Coleman Knabe, Derrek Lahr, Jack Newton, and Viktor Orekhov, all undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral students at Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering.

Friendly competition

Team DARwIn is comprised of Virginia Tech and University of Pennsylvania
students. Here, they pose with Team 2JUDancer, after winning a
semi-final match on 24 June 2012.

One of the best aspects of RoboCup is the friendly atmosphere among competitors. There's no strife or ill will, fights, or sabotage. Teams help each other out, ask to borrow screwdrivers, duct tape, and camera tripods, and are never turned down if the objects are at hand. 


Moments ago, Team DARwIn -- comprised of Virginia Tech and University of Pennsylvania students -- won against Team 2JUDancer, 9-0 in a semi-final match. After the game, hands were shook, and the two teams posed for this photo. Now that is sportsmanship.

RoboCup: Day three scores and the morning of finals

Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory continued to dominate in the Adult- and Kid-Sized robotics leagues during its third day of competition, Friday, 22 June 2012, at RoboCup 2012’s soccer leagues. 

As the morning of the fourth day, and the final day, began, the competition hall – once echoing with the noise of dozens of teams prepping for games, was quiet as only a handful of remaining teams prepped for a last battle. Among them Virginia Tech and our partners, the University of Pennsylvania.

A roundup of scores from day three:

Kid-Size: Team DARwIn (consisting of Virginia Tech and University of Pennsylvania students)

Vs. Hamburg Bit-Bots, 10-0

Vs. AUTMan, 8-1

 Teen-Size: Team DARwIn-XOS (consisting of University of Pennsylvania and Virginia Tech students) lost its only game of the day, 0-1, but remained in the semi-finals, scheduled for 10 a.m. today.

Adult-Size: CHARLI (consisting solely of Virginia Tech students)

Vs. JoiTech, 1-0

We’ll have updates as the day progresses… Check out ww.robocup2012.com for more details.

RoboCup first impressions

Left to right, Jack Newton and Coleman Knabe work on
CHARLI immediately following a match at RoboCup.

Two members of this year’s RoMeLa team are new to the RoboCup competition, and enjoying their first visit to Mexico. Here’s their take on RoboCup...

“It’s pretty cool. The amount of energy you find in this place is astonishing, you’ve got all these teams that have come from across the world and they are working as hard as they possibly can to have the best robots they possibly can. And it’s really cool to see that. And I didn’t expect to see so many spectators. They keep on coming in, and they are cheering and yelling, and really interested in this stuff. It’s cool stuff.”

-Jack Newton, a rising senior in computer engineering, from Blacksburg, Va. 

“It’s exciting, long days. I started out with a lot of pep and energy, and now waking up each morning is increasingly difficult. Every team I have talked to is nice, out-going, and interested in each other’s robots, and I don’t think they are interested in each other’s robots because they want to steal designs or concepts or anything like that, rather, it’s almost like a conference for them. So they can get inspiration, ideas. It’s always good when you have a robot and see other deigns, what other people are doing, it’s almost like benchmarking … It’s a positive interest, and not a “let’s steal their ideas and come back next year.” And from my senior design project, we completely took apart a Darwin-OP and made an assembly manual, and there’s a team here from Hamburg, Germany, using that assembly manual. They say it’s a big help, and that is a big morale boost, a big positive feedback on my work.”

-Coleman Knabe, second-year master’s student in mechanical engineering, from Newport News, Va.