The FIRA Robo World Cup 2023 in Wolfenbüttel
Welcome to Wolfenbüttel
We had barely arrived back home from sunny Bordeaux and this year’s RoboCup when a new major event was already casting its shadow – the FIRA (Federal of International Robot sports Association) Robo World Cup. FIRA offers different challenges in various leagues, which are not limited to pure robotics but also include, among other things, autonomous drones and vehicles. The Wolves competed in the Human Robotics (HuRo) league. The challenges in this league were: sprinting, long jump, archery, weightlifting, basketball, and much more.
A world championship right on our own doorstep? Of course we’re taking part – admittedly not at full team strength, since some needed a break after Bordeaux first or have to attend to their everyday business again. At FIRA we are represented by Mia, Torben, David and Niklas. Our all-rounder Lars was on site too, but with his own team “Ostfalia-Cup” – that didn’t matter, though, we still had time to chat and for photos.
The Challenge
Our teammates decided not to take part in every possible discipline but to focus on one challenge: the robot sprint. The goal is for a robot to sprint four meters forward in as short a time as possible, stop at a marker, and then walk the four meters back backward. On top of that come smaller adjustments, such as the requirement that the participating robot must react to a blast from a whistle for the start of the sprint. All of these tasks had to be implemented quickly, since there were only five days between the return from France and the FIRA competition. The team decided to use robot Detlef for the challenge, since he was still the fittest among our robots after the trip to France. And so, in the remaining days, there was screwing, programming and whistling again – of course, the team first has to teach Detlef how “hearing” works and what a whistle means for him.
The Lindenhalle
From Monday on, we went to the Lindenhalle in Wolfenbüttel for on-site training … and that was important, because on site there was no turf, only a carpet, which completely changes robot Detlef’s walking behavior, and that can only be adjusted on site. So over the next few days the task was to keep optimizing the robot on site, adapt it to the conditions, and complete a total of three official sprints for scoring over the course of the week. The best sprint attempt is then compared with those of the other teams at the end to crown a winner – the world champion. Besides the actual challenge, there were of course also technical discussions between the teams again, since our colleagues from Taiwan were among the participants, whom some Wolves already got to know on the short trip to Prague. This World Cup was also the first event at which our Wolves took part at the same time as our colleagues from Ostfalia-Cup. And so the teams also got to know each other better – for example while enjoying Jana’s cake together.
Media Coverage
A world championship with international participants and guests in Lower Saxony? The media interest didn’t take long to appear, and as one of the two teams from Ostfalia, the interest in the Wolves was of course especially high. So it happened that a few days before the FIRA World Championship, a television team from NDR announced itself to accompany and interview our team on site at FIRA. Besides Torben, Mia also agreed, after initial discomfort, to represent us properly in front of the camera. On Tuesday the time came, and the small three-person team filmed the activities at FIRA. For moral support, Jana, Marcus and Lars were also on site that day. Even though it was an unfamiliar situation, Mia, Torben and Detlef did a fantastic job in front of the camera and a great report resulted. Besides NDR, a camera team from RTL NORD also dropped by during the week, but this time Lars had to step in front of the camera for team “Ostfalia-Cup”. On Thursday, at the final award ceremony, a short interview was also conducted with a reporter from the local paper “Wolfenbüttler Schaufenster” with both Ostfalia teams. A multi-page article will appear in the Sunday edition. (You can find all links to articles and video reports at the end of the blog post).
Final Results and Party
On Thursday, after the last sprint attempt, the final results and the award ceremony followed. And it turned out generous, because despite the smaller team, the very short preparation time and the increased media interest, our Wolves achieved a solid 3rd place – and with it a podium spot – in the sprint discipline. Congratulations to our teammates! Congratulations are also due to our colleagues from autonomous vehicles. Team Ostfalia-Cup even managed to take the overall win in their challenge “Autonomous Car (Pro)” and secure the world champion title in their discipline. Congratulations!
On Friday, the last day of the FIRA Robo World Championship, there were a few last challenges in which the Wolves no longer took part. In the evening, there was an invitation to the banquet and a closing party. After sharing a meal at the banquet and talking with the other teams, we went, together with Tony, Peter and Simon, our colleagues from Taiwan, and Matheus and Alina, two of the FIRA referees, to a bar in downtown Wolfenbüttel and spent a wonderful evening together. Highlight of the evening: David, Niklas and Lars dared to step onto the karaoke stage and gave a few songs.
And with that, this competition also ends – now it’s time to take a breather and recover from the last few weeks!