“Whistler Retreat: Resident
AI expert, Terence Lin, gives a software tutorial to the team.”
The UBC Thunderbots — the autonomous soccer-playing robot design team — hosted Canada’s first RoboCup competition at UBC this past summer. Rivalling teams from China and Germany arrive to compete their robots in a soccer tournament against the defending North American champion (the home team). The success of the tournament and peripheral events allowed teams to interact with the community in a variety of demos, games, and workshops. The Thunderbots then went on to compete at RoboCup 2012 in Mexico City, the largest international robotics competition in the world. The team placed 11th in the world, while showcasing their new and innovative designs.
This year, Thunderbots formed two brand new teams: Thunderbots@Home and Thunderbots Simulation. Simulation is designing artificial intelligence software to compete in fully software-based soccer games, and @Home aims to build an autonomous domestic assistive robot. Both teams will compete in their respective RoboCup leagues. As a kickstart to the year, this past weekend, all three teams took off for a retreat to Whistler to share ideas, brainstorm new concepts, get to know each other and plan for the exciting year ahead.