International success for U of M Robot Team at FIRA HuroCup

The U of M Autonomous Agents Lab  robot team did very well at the FIRA HuroCup, held August 11 – 16, 2019 in Changwon, Korea, placing third and fourth overall. More than 50 teams from 10 countries competed including: South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, China, India, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

FIRA is a multi-sport robotic event modelled after a human decathlon. Overall placing is determined by earning as many points as possible over all the events, and the same robot must be used for all events.

This year’s events consisted of: archery (moving targets), a marathon, a sprint, basketball free throws, weightlifting, united soccer (forming soccer teams with randomly selected robots from different entrants), a triple jump (requiring multiple jumps and the ability to land without damage), an obstacle run, soccer penalty kicks, and a Spartan race (moving over uneven terrain and getting over a wall by climbing a ladder and a rope).  

U of M sent two robot teams, small (kid) size robots and large (adult) size robots. The teams were led by Post-Doctoral fellow Meng Cheng (MC) Lau.

John Anderson, professor in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Science, says: “Overall we proud of our accomplishments. We improved our standing from last year, the adult size team came in third this year, including:1st in the Triple Jump, and the kid size team came in 4th, including 1st in the Spartan Race and second in United Soccer.”

Undergraduate student Chi Fung (Andy) Lun, was also awarded one of two $500 scholarships recognizing exceptional contributions to the FIRA community.

The University team consisted of Dr. John Anderson, Chi Fung (Andy) Lun, Amirhossein Hosseinmemar, Marshall Jackson, Buroi Li, Yan Lam Ng, Mario Mendez Diaz, Christian Melendez Gallegos, Louis O’Connor, and Ziang Wang.