A team of four 4Tel staff, including 4AI Systems’ AI Development Manager, Trent Houliston, joined the NUbots team from the University of Newcastle’s Robotics Research Group to compete in RoboCup 2024 in the Netherlands in July. 4Tel has sponsored the NUbots since 2017 as part of a longstanding relationship with the university.
The team achieved its best performance in the Humanoid League, finishing an impressive fourth place. The NUbots robots scored eight goals across the competition and won three games.
“The NUbots did exceptionally well this year. The team worked very hard leading up to the competition and had many long days at the venue tuning and problem-solving. This effort was reflected as the robots performed exceptionally well, with each of the robotic team members scoring at least two goals. I am proud to be involved with the team and to see the growth in the skill of the robots and, most importantly, human team members,” said Trent.
Watch the NuBots competing at RoboCup 2024.
RoboCup 2024 had 2,000 participants across 300 teams from 45 countries, with more than 50,000 visitors attending. The international competition is an education initiative to support AI and robotics research.
The team had a loss and a draw in their first two round robin games, with small issues impacting the robots’ ability to play well. With some tweaks along the way, they turned this around by the third game, winning with two goals against Brazil.
In the 16th round, the team scored three goals to win against the UK, taking them to the quarter finals. Here they faced China, the team who knocked them out in 2023, but with determination they claimed the win to take them into the top four.
The team lost a tough semi-final against Japan, who went on to become the world champions, and just missed out a place on the podium in their final game against Indonesia.
A fantastic overall result in an internationally acclaimed competition. Congratulations to this hard-working and dedicated NUbots team!