Improving the kicking accuracy in a soccer robot

Abstract

Most of the soccer robots in the Middle Size League of RoboCup use electromagnetic kicking devices that allow to kick the ball with adjustable strength. In order to be efficient to score, the kicking strength should be calculated according to several parameters, namely the physical characteristics of the kicking device, the distance to the target, the velocity of the robot and the floor friction parameters. Moreover, the kicking decision should be taken at a moment in which the actual movement of the robot would result in the ball being released to the target direction, even if it is not physically aligned with it. This paper proposes an algorithm to improve the kicking accuracy, taking into account the described parameters, in a heuristic approach. The experimental results presented in this paper show the effectiveness of the proposed solution to improve the efficiency of the kicking device.