Benjamin Vadant

Have you been to a competition before? What made you want to come?

No, this is my first. I've always wanted to come to a competition, and to be part of the process by coming and contributing in the Rockin camp gives you a backstage view which is very cool.

What is the coolest thing you've seen this week?

SwarmLab@Work robot [from University of Maastrict] which was very fast. In our work, the biggest difficulty is the computing time which has to be very small to be good enough for human-robot interaction. I've been particularly interested in the computing speed of the robots in the @Home competition, given that they don't know what tasks they will have to perform before they enter the arena.

What have you learned from your Rockin experience?

Benchmarking is very useful. It's true that we don't use it if we don't have to... but we should do! Not just in order to publish papers, but for ourselves, to show that we are truly progressing.

Bipin Kumar Badri

What is it that appeals to you about robotics competitions?

For me it's that they're a fantastic learning opportunity: participants are extremely open with their research and you can see first-hand the new approaches being developed to overcoming particular obstacles in robotics. In addition, competitions can bring together a diverse range of people from around the world, allowing you to network with people you might not have otherwise had the chance to.

What have been your highlights from RoboCup 2013?

I've actually been most impressed by the Rescue League: it's challenging, it tests an extensive range of abilities and the flexibility of the league allows for a lot of variety in the robots involved. RoboCup has also given me a better idea of the applications of robots in industry.

What are your main takeaways from RoCKIn Camp 2013

I think it gave a good insight into how current robotic competitions have been devised and what RoCKIn is doing differently. I found Luca [Luca Iocchi, Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome and RoCKIn partner] talking about RoboCup@Home's approach to benchmarking and testing functionalities particularly interesting.

Elena Zanotto

What made you want to come to a competition for the first time?

I wanted to see something ‘real'. My University doesn't have many of the robots that we can see in the competitions. I was particularly interested to come and see the Kuka robots in the RoboCup@Work league because that is what we are using in our simulations.

What have been your highlights from RoboCup 2013?

To see how large real robots are! It's been fascinating to see the state of the art, the way the robots can react, work with people and respond to answers.

What have you learned this week?

A lot! Of course I know a lot more now about Robocup, @Home, and @Work - which has been really interesting to see how robotics can be applied to real problems in industry.

Erenus Yildiz

Have you been to a competition before? What have you learnt?

I recently went to the German Open RoboCup 2013, which was my first competition, and you see the real problems robots have to face. It's hard to cope with everything in practice - object recognition is especially tough.

What is the coolest thing you've seen this week?

The Cosero robot from the University of Bonn in RoboCup@Home, which completed 99% of the tasks. At the German RoboCup, there was no one who could do what Cosero did here.

Did you learn any lessons here that you will take back with you?

The RoCKIn lectures made me look at competitions from a more scientific perspective - benchmarking and better measurement of progress are particularly important takeaways.

Francisco Lera

What is it that appeals to you about robotics competitions?

Working in the lab can sometimes feel like a continuous process of writing code. Competitions such as RoboCup give students a real deadline to work towards and provide an invaluable tool for evaluating their work.

What have been your highlights from RoboCup 2013?

I think it has to be RoboCup@Home and seeing how much both the scenarios and the robots have developed since I was last here.

What are your main takeaways from RoCKIn Camp 2013?

Luca's [Luca Iocchi, Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome and RoCKIn partner] presentation was particularly relevant to my work; it gave real insight into the RoboCup@Home technical committee's decisions over the years.

Lenka Mudrova

Have you been to a competition before? What have you learnt?

I have previously been to the Eurobot competition (2009-12 as a participant, and 2013 as a referee), and the Czech Robotour Challenge 2011. These have helped me understand robotics better and given me motivation. For example, I chose the topic of my diploma thesis based on the desire to solve localization problems for the Czech Robotour Challenge.

Have I learnt from these competitions?

Robotics is hard! Everything that can break, will break. You can have intelligent software, but unless you can use it in real application, it is good for nothing.

What have you been most impressed with at Robocup?

I was impressed by the finals at Middle size league of Soccer game. It was amazing to observe robots which pass the ball to each other and really cooperated in getting a goal. Also, I liked a robot which used tools in Robocup@home competition.

What have you learned from your experience at RoCKIn?

The biggest lesson learned was from Matteo's [Matteo Matteucci, Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Milano and partner in the Rockin project] presentation on benchmarking - it will give another important element to competitions, so they are not only fun but have another way to measure scientific progress. Future competitions need to have a balance of good fun and good science.

Mamoun Gharbi

What made you want to come to a competition for the first time?

My tutor recommended that I come here to discover what a huge competition involving lots of people, and lots of robots, is like

What is your favourite thing you've seen this week?

Definitely the mid-size football league - it's the most dynamic and reactive. You compare it to waiting for 2 minutes for breakfast from a robot - this is irrelevant! The @Home league needs to become faster.

Is there something you've seen here that you will take back with you to your lab?

Yes - 'REEM' the dancing robot [from Pompeu Fabra University] had small, idling movements, such as turning its head to look around as it entered the room. When a robot is static, it doesn't seem alive; with idling movements, it seems far more human - I will try to implement this in my work.

Manuel Silva

What made you want to come to RoCKIn and your first competition?

We already have a team competing in other competitions (the RoboCup midsized league) at ISEP, but we were branch out and compete in some new ones. This was a great opportunity to see how we could do that.

What has been the most impressive thing you have seen at RoboCup?

Besides the technology, it has been seeing all the students engaged in the competition and the way they work. It is hard in schools to motivate students to make or learn certain things; here, they discover it for themselves. The soft skills they develop - teamwork, working to deadlines, presenting in English, networking and gaining contacts - are immeasurable.

What will you take back with you from the RoCKIn Camp and RoboCup experience?

I am motivated to convince my colleagues to get involved in RoCKIn@Work. In particular, it's been interesting to see more mobile robots (and not just arms) in industrial application.

Miguel Vaz

What is it that appeals to you about robotics competitions?

It's a number of things - the competitive element, the fact that they showcase the latest technology, and the global mix of people and perspectives they can bring.

What have been your highlights from RoboCup 2013?

I think it was the extent to which teams are able to develop their robots just over the space of the weekend. I guess this would explain the widespread desk napping!

What are your main takeaways from RoCKIn Camp 2013?

It was RoCKIn's emphasis on benchmarking and the idea of competitions as scientific experiments. I find this a very interesting approach, and a necessary one I think in order to ensure that these competitions are driving innovation in the field.

Umar Shoaib

What is it that appeals to you about robotics competitions?

For me it's the way they're able to involve both the scientific community and general public. They're fun, interactive, and mean researchers can get rapid feedback on their work from top experts in the field and a largely non-technical audience who bring a whole new perspective on things - a perspective that can sometimes be missing in academia.

What have been your highlights from RoboCup 2013?

Clips from RoboCup are all around the internet, but these really don't do it justice. Actually being here, experiencing the competitive atmosphere and being able to speak directly to the teams behind the robots and exchanging ideas and experiences - these have been the highlights for me. I can now take all the knowledge I've gained here and apply it to my own research and projects.

What are your main takeaways from RoCKIn Camp 2013?

The lectures gave me a real insight into how robotics competitions work and what goes into to designing them. Plus of course it has been a great opportunity to meet new people and exchange ideas.