Water Won Back World Cup by enduring hardships
By Tue, 02 Jul 2013 GMT
BISTU robot soccer team Water, led by Ge Xinsheng, Dean of School of Electromechanical Engineering, beat the host, defending champion Eindhoven University of Technology Team with 3:2 in the final through extra time, and regained the middle-size champion in the 17th RoboCup Robot World Cup held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands from June 24th to 30th ,after 13 fierce competitions composed of 3 rounds of group round robin and top four knock-out. Water has made a record of one team winning three championships in past four competitions.
During the game, Her Majesty Maxima, the Queen of the Netherlands presented and watched the demonstration match between Water and Holland.
The supervisor Ms. Wang Xueyan said: “It is the result of hard work; actually, since we went back from Mexico World Cup last year, we have begun to programme competition procedure for new regulations. All of us went to robot lab at least 3 times a week. And we almost went there every night in three months before the match. During most important two weeks of robot commissioning, some players like ChenSong and Tian Ye even carried camp beds to the lab to debug overnight. Behind the great success, the students have paid hard work and industrious sweat.” Another supervisor ZhaoYong pointed out that Water focused on improving the stability of robot round the regulations of last year, because there was no big change in regulations. In final, BISTU team reached full potential and kept the advantage of passing and catching of the Netherlands’ with limits by tenacious defence. Finally the team won, though they played a game filled with frustration and ordeals.
There were about 3000 spectators in the final. Mayor of Eindhoven, Rob van Gijzel were also there and kicked off the match in person. It may be said that the final had ups and downs, with a series of accidents happened to Water, such as no startup of the goalkeeper No.1, Moto burn out of the player No.4 and interface damage between camera system and USB,etc. Water scored quickly in less than a minute from beginning, but soon tied and got another lead. With 30 seconds left of regular session, the Holland equalized through one free-kick and took the game to extra time. In more competitive overtime, both sides played neck to neck. Water took another lead through one free-kick in the second half of the overtime and kept it to the end. At that time, the robot battery and standby ones were almost drained. The whole 3000 audiences rose to give Water a standing ovation at the end of final. Daniele Nardi, President of Robocup Union commission led all members to come forward and celebrate the victory of Water. Afterwards, a special Man-machine competition was held between Water and the representatives of Robocup Union Commission, an honor only for champion of middle-size group.