I drove south for an hour last night to enjoy the company of some RoboCuppers. I met up with Todd Hester of Austin Villa as well as the RoboCup “celebrity” (so says an Australian newspaper) Michael Quinlan who took me to their robotics lab. There I was introduced to the (in)famous Mohan. After some segway play, we went out for burgers, drinks, and old fashioned nerd talk. I met some other members from the UT Comp Sci labs and even saw a man wearing a Koala backpack. It was a short trip to the city, as now I am back at home. I may even log some work hours for the trip, since discussion was had about the beginning of a collaborative research paper.
About
Northern Bites is Bowdoin College’s robot team.
We compete in the Standard Platform League of RoboCup where teams consisting of Nao robots each play on a field of 7.4 m x 5.4 m. The robots operate fully autonomously; there is no external control by humans or computers.
We placed 2nd in the SPL in 2009, 3rd in the Aibo league in 2008, and were World Champions in 2007.
1) What the heck is a Koala Backpack
2) Which collaborative research paper was discussed?