With the Suzhou RoboCup only just over, we are still under the spell of this wonderful journey. The organization was faultless; the Chinese were highly hospitable and enthusiastic. The RoboCup was Aldebaran’s high point of the year in technical and human terms, because it enabled us to see Nao operate in competitive conditions and meet with the selected teams.
Thank you all for your encouragement and enjoy your read!
Bruno Maisonnier, founder of Aldebaran Robotics
The RoboCup was a very intense experience in many respects: number of hours worked, intense moments during the games and a very emotional moment when Nao danced before an array of officials during the opening ceremony. This enabled us to test the robot’s robustness in normal and even extreme operating conditions and thereby significantly enhance our product.
Thanks to feedback from the various teams, we were able to pinpoint the key improvements that are needed: R&D has already made some alterations, which are currently being tested and will be implemented in the weeks to come.
One thing’s for sure, Nao won unanimous support from all the visitors, from the youngest to the oldest! Photographed from every angle, he posed hundreds of times like a genuine star with children, groups of young fans, and even Chinese policemen…
The movements of the Naos, which were hesitant during the initial matches, improved from competition to competition, as did their ball approach. The teams controlled the robot better and better, testing and re-testing their code, from one day to the next.
The 15 teams competing in the standard league over one week finally went to a penalty shootout, the finalists at any rate. The NUManoids, a joint team from the university of New South Wales (Australia) and MayNooth (Ireland) were the winners thanks to their mastery of the programming tools. The runners-up were the American team GTCMUnited'08, from the Georgia Tech university (United States) and Carnegie Mellon university (United States), who stood out thanks to their very effective replacement technique and ball tracking.
The prize-giving unfolded with great pomp and ceremony on a podium illuminated by fireworks on the ground!
Bruno Maisonnier (left) congratulate the winner's team
But this remains Nao’s first steps in the RoboCup! Many specific improvements need to be made for next year. Rest assured; we are already mentally prepared for 2009, which will be held at Graz in Austria.
15 members of the Aldebaran team boarded the plane for Suzhou.
There was a great deal of excitement at the maintenance stand, where we ministered to robots that were too stressed!
Aldebaran’s members enjoyed a lot of success thanks to Nao...
Some of you are wondering how we are progressing with regard to a more extensive marketing campaign beyond the Robocup teams and university laboratories: We are working on this day in day out. Thanks to the feedback on the robot’s stress levels, we will be able to offer a great quality product. We are not currently in a position to communicate exactly when the first commercial release will be, but it is now only a matter of months. We are as impatient as you to see the product emerge from the labs and become part of your everyday life.
Keep checking the online forum; ask us questions, react to our comments, all your contributions help us progress. Thank you again for your patience and support.
See you soon.
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