Competing in Robotics

RoboCup Junior is an international competition for the construction and programming of robots. It’s a part of the major RoboCup initiative – one of the biggest robot competitions in the world, with thousands of participants from over 40 countries.

Linköping students are organising the Swedish qualifying rounds for RoboCup Junior (in Swedish Junior-VM i robotik) where children and young people up to the age of 19 can take part. The winners get to represent Sweden in the 2015 international finals, which will be held in Hefei, China.

Mr Löfgren, who is in the fourth year of his studies for a master’s in Engineering Physics and Electronics, is a previous participant in the competition and current project leader for the RoboCup Junior finals in Linköping. He is the youngest ever member of the technical committee, which is mainly composed of eminent researchers and teachers.

“RoboCup Junior has been held in Sweden since 2009. I took part the very first year, won

the competition, and got to represent Sweden at the world championship in Austria.”

Since then, Mr Löfgren has won many competitions, in which he got to do things such as represent Sweden in Singapore and compete in the World Championships in Istanbul.

“After that I was too old; in 2012 I became team leader for one team and a judge for the national competition. I was also appointed to the international organizing committee of RoboCup Junior Rescue, and the technical committee.”

He has also been involved on the international stage, for example in Brazil where he wrote the rules for the next year’s competition. He was also team leader at the World Championships in Eindhoven. In 2013, Mr Löfgren started a student society whose aim was to organise RoboCup Junior in Sweden. The FIA student association (the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Society) grew, and now RoboCup Junior is just one of many events the society organises each year.

How do you select the participants?

“I was chosen as project leader for the competition by the board of the FIA, and then I appointed a project team of five people to help me plan and organise the competition in Linköping.”

The FIA is also organising a competition for university students and the public in conjunction with RoboCup Junior, so that more people can get the chance to compete with robots.

“I love to compete and I’ve competed in knowledge for a very long time,” Mr Löfgren says.

Robots around the dinner tableWhat has your involvement given you in practical terms?
“Being involved with robots has given me a great advantage in my studies here at the university. I have learned a great deal not only about electronics, programming and construction, but also about leadership and other cultures on my many travels, as well as how to collaborate on international projects.”

Mr Löfgren thinks it’s great to see how older researchers and professors listen to what he has to say, and he is looking forward to the next cooking competition that will be held in Madrid in November. It will consist of seeing how well the robots manage to cook tomato soup, write a shopping list and find and switch off a stove hob that has been left on.

He has already been offered jobs, but turned them down as he wants to finish his studies first before he starts his “real” working life.

Developing robots for space, robots that explore other planets and robots that work in caring for the elderly by doing all the heavy work so that staff can devote time to their personal contact with elderly people, are examples of dream jobs.

“I want to develop the technology of tomorrow and I’m open to everything that has to do with the development of technology. As I have worked with robots for 15 years, they are very dear to my heart.”

Text: Zen Dinah, student reporter
Photo: Julius Jeuthe, student photographer

Source: Linköping University

Five AGRIPIR projects for introducing new technologies into highland agriculture

Five projects for introducing new technologies into highland agriculture will be launched as a result of the European cross-border cooperation AGRIPIR project. In concrete, plans are being drawn up for the teledetection of diseases amongst animals, the prevention of attacks by wolves and other predators, there mote monitoring of herd activity, and the self-supply of energy to remote holdings, as well asa “virtual herder” for controlling herds at a distance.

The European AGRIPIR project, in which various partners on both sides of the Pyrenees have been working for over three years in order to modernise agriculture and animal herding in mountainous areas, concluded with a two-day seminar in Bidart (in Labourd, in the continental Basque Country) . Five innovative projects to introduce new technologies onPyrenees farm-holdings were presented. The seminar was held on 11 and 12 ofDecember, in the presence of a number of authorities, outstanding amongst whom was the recently appointed European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Phil Hogan from Ireland.

In concrete, this network of exchange and experimentation for the revaluation and enhancement of agriculture in the Pyrenees has given rise to four new projects:

- Power Box: developing an energy kit made up of various supply sources and that guarantees energy autonomy for mountain herders and shepherds in zones of difficult access in order to carry out their daily tasks.

- Mastech: developing technologies based on nuclear magnetic resonance, thermography, proteomics (the study of proteins) and measures based on behaviour andphysiologyfor the early detection amongst sheep, goat and cattle herds of mastitis processes (the most frequent diseases that affect the dairy industry worldwide).

- Live-Pre Life: improving the co-existence of large predators and herds in mountain areas, through developing intelligent fencing, methods for the early detection of attacks, and active systems to drive away wolves and other potentially dangerous animals.

- Cowmon: developing an open, low-cost system with unlimited autonomy for monitoring herd activity over large expanses of terrain and to provide new services linked to animal welfare and tothe productivity of farmlands.

A pilot project known as e-Pasto has also already been developed, involving a “virtual herder” to control herds remotely, using latest-generation geo-location devices fitted to the collars of the animals.

Source: Elhuyar Fundazioa

Through the Google Glass

WFU Instruction librarian Amanda Foster adjusts Google Glass for a student. Credit: WFU/Ken Bennett

In a class called Accessing Information in the 21st Century, instruction librarian Amanda Foster is using a new technology tool to do just that.

It's Google Glass or just Glass, as the techno giant likes to call it. While it's been widely covered in the media, chances are most people have yet to see it first hand. Foster is interested in examining the possibilities of how Glass or related technologies could be used in the future, particularly in the educational setting for teaching, learning and research.

Glass is a type of wearable computer headset, similar to a pair of sleek glasses and displays information on a mini screen in the upper right corner of the wearer's field of vision. Wearers can communicate with Glass via voice commands to search the Internet, take pictures and video, play games and more.

"We are very curious to see how it's going to work in the classroom. We don't know yet how it's going to impact education, and we don't know if it's even a good thing or what kind of contributions it can make," said Foster, whose class is designed to teach students how to conduct research in the library. "It's kind of an interesting case study in and of itself. But librarians are also really interested in informational literacy -- how we access information in the 21st century and what the future of that is going to look like."

The idea for Foster's class is to have students use Glass as a catalyst to research, discuss, explore and reflect on information-related themes, such as privacy, social responsibility and the future implications of technologies in medicine, business, education and gaming.

"Google Glass brings about a lot of interesting questions related to privacy and our social interactions with other people," she said.

Foster got the green light and funds to experiment with Google Glass from Lynn Sutton, vice provost and ZSR Library dean.

So she jumped in, bought the device and taught herself how to use it. "It was definitely a trial and error process and that's what the classroom experience was like at first, too," she said.

Foster purchased one device because of the expense and had to come up with creative ways for a class of 15 to 20 students to use it. She planned projects for them to work together in small groups of four. They conducted scavenger hunts in the library, taking pictures with Glass to prove their success and used the video function to make tutorials on how to use library databases. Another project had them conduct research on a topic specific to Glass such as privacy and related laws and social interactions. One of the most enjoyable assignments was performing skits about the do's and don'ts of using Google Glass -- demonstrating what is appropriate behavior in public when you're wearing the device, Foster said. "The students are really interested in the social aspect of it, of wearing this thing on your face and how that might enhance or impede social interactions. That is something we've been able to explore."

A student's perspective

Freshman Chris Schafer said he took every opportunity to wear Glass that he could because he wanted to test its capabilities.

"I absolutely loved Glass, mainly because it's so new and rare to the market," he said, adding that he would likely purchase his own device if the price came down.

Schafer was even able to show Foster something new about Glass. "I was able to discover the wink feature for taking a picture that Ms. Foster could not even figure out," he said, "so I had the Glass programmed to my wink only, and as long as I winked hard enough, a picture would be taken."

So far, Foster is the only instructor on campus trying Google Glass though she is aware of university professors elsewhere who are using it and blogging about it.

"ZSR is known across campus as well as in the academic library community for encouraging innovation and taking risks," said Sutton. "I was happy to support Amanda with her creative proposal. Where better to investigate the intersection of technology and privacy than a library classroom with Wake Forest students?"

Foster said the most successful aspect of using Glass in class is how students were really engaged with the content. "While there's room for improvement, I think it has potential to be really successful in higher education," she said. "It's been a wonderful way to bring about discussion on these interesting information-related issues that are at the heart of how we access information and what the future of that is going to look like."

Source: Wake Forest University