INESC TEC organises Portuguese Robotics Open 2019
This event, promoted by the Portuguese Robotics Society, aimed at promoting Science and Technology among young people, professors and researchers, as well as everyone interested in the area, through competitions of autonomous robots.
03rd May 2019
The Portuguese Robotics Society elected INESC TEC and FEUP as the official organisers of the Portuguese Robotics Open 2019.
It was in this Festival that the Portuguese teams were selected in order to participate in the RoboCup international events, two robotics competitions (one is at a worldwide level and the other at a European level) that gather the best teams of each country and where Portugal has been enjoying a successful background. There are two classes of competitions that give access to the selection: junior and major.
The teams that will represent Portugal in the RoboCup international events in the different leagues are:
- Middle Size League: CAMBADA
- Simulation 3D: FCPortugal3D
RoboCupJunior OnStage: TUPI, Epra Soul
- RoboCupJunior Rescue - Line: Django
- RoboCupJunior Rescue - Maze: CENFIM OAZ
- RoboCupJunior Rescue - Simulation: Barcelinhos Robotics RS
- RoboCupJunior Soccer - Light League: AGSG 2
- RoboCupJunior Soccer - Open League: AGSG 1
- RoboCupJunior OnStage: ALL TOGETHER, Barcelinhos, Saravá Robótico, 5G
- RoboCupJunior Rescue - Line: STORM, LAICA
- RoboCupJunior Rescue - Maze: MAZE RUNNER, EvolveR
- RoboCupJunior Rescue - Simulation: Robotic Builders, ESA Robots 1
- RoboCupJunior Soccer - Light League: AGSG 3, AGSG 4
- RoboCupJunior Soccer - Open League: Botnroll, EPF_RJ
The competitions
The junior competition was targeted towards students whose age could not exceed 19. These teams were required to have a mentor, who could be a professor. However, in the day of the competitions, he couldn’t be with his team.
On the other hand, the major competition was mainly targeted to teams that were part of universities, polytechnics and national or international research institutions (Germany, the Netherlands, Croatia and Spain). In the Major League, the teams could have more than five members.
The results of the competitions
Seven types of competitions were part of the major league. The winners in each one of the categories were:
- Middle Size League: CAMBADA
- 3D Simulation League: magmaOffenburg
- Autonomous Driving: Major Alvega
- Robot@Factory: MinhoTeam 2.0
- Robot@Factory Lite: IPB@Factory
- Robot@Factory Rookie: Novatos
- FreeBots: Augmented Collaboration
Seven types of competitions were part of the junior league. The winners in each one of the categories were:
- Soccer Junior, Light League: AGSG 2
- Soccer Junior, Open League: AGSG 1
- OnStage: TUPI
- Rescue - Line: Django
- Rescue - Maze: CENFIM OAZ
- Rescue - Simulation: Barcelinhos Robotics RS
- FreeBots Junior: Os Legend
- First Challenger: Rocha 1
The technological exhibition
“At the same time that the competitions took place, the Portuguese Robotics Open 2019 had an exhibition of projects developed in the several robotics clubs, ranging from primary education schools to the secondary education. Training workshops in the robotics and programming areas were also held for students and professors of the primary and secondary education. We also had the opportunity to welcome schools that organised field trips”, explains António Paulo Moreira, coordinator of INESC TEC’S Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CRIIS).
The City Council of Gondomar, the School Groups N.1 of Gondomar and the Colégio Paulo VI of Gondomar and several other institutions, including the School of Engineering of Polytechnic Institute of Porto, the Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Laboratory (LIACC) of the University of Porto, ESPE – Espinho, CISTER, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, UTAD and the University of Aveiro supported the organisation of this festival.
ICARS 2019 conference took place between 24 and 26 April
Two days before the Portuguese Robotics Open, that is, between 24 and 26 April, the 19th IEEE International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions (ICARSC 2019) was held. It’s an annual event held in Portugal, which is always associated with the Portuguese Robotics Open and where national and international researchers in the Robotics area are given the opportunity to present the results of their most recent researches.
The Conference was held at the Gondomar Multipurpose Pavilion. Important individuals in the area of robotics, such as Bruno Siciliano from the University of Naples in Italy, were present in the conference.
The INESC TEC's researchers responsible for the organisation of the Portuguese Robotics Open 2019 and ICARSC 2019 were: António Paulo Moreira, Cláudia Rocha, Manuel Silva, José Lima and Pedro Costa.
The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC, UP-FEUP, P.Porto-ISEP and IPB.