Winning the RoboCup@Work 2014 competition: The smARTLab approach

Abstract

In this paper we summarise the approach of the smART-Lab@Work team that has won the 2014 RoboCup@Work competition. smARTLab (swarms, multi-agent, and robot technologies and learning lab) is a robotics research lab that is part of the Agent ART group at the computer science department of the University of Liverpool. This team has won the competition for the second year in a row. The team previously competed as swarmlab@Work and changed name after the move of professor Tuyls and his research group from Maastricht University to the University of Liverpool, UK. The various techniques that have been combined to win the competition come from different computer science domains, including machine learning, (simultaneous) localisation and mapping, navigation, object recognition and object manipulation. While the RoboCup@Work league is not a standard platform league, all participants use a (customised) KUKA youBot. The stock youBot is a ground based platform, capable of omnidirectional movement and equipped with a five degree of freedom arm featuring a parallel gripper. We present our adaptations to the robot, in which the replacement of the gripper was the most important upgrade comparing to the version of the robot that was used last year.