TURTLE-5K

In September 2015, Fontys Hogeschool ICT, Avans Hogescholen and the company ICT (ICT Automatisering Nederland B.V.) joined the already existing consortium of cooperating partners from the industry and education, which works together on the development of a new soccer robot, named TURTLE-5K.

This consortium was established in 2012 by ACE ingenieurs- & adviesbureau, VEDS Group and the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e) in order to develop an affordable soccer robot. Avans Hogescholen and Fontys Hogeschool ICT will further integrate the soccer robot into their ICT- and Mechatronica-educations in the following few years. The ICT company supervises the software-development.

Frank Steeghs, Project leader TURTLE-5K, ACE engineers- & consultancy bureau: "We intend to participate in the international RoboCupcompetition with this new robot, the world's largest and most prominent competition for intelligent robots and one of the world's most important technology events in research and education. Universities and Colleges from all over the world will participate in this very challenging competition. The addition of new partners also gives bachelor students the opportunity of substantially contributing to this project."

The students will make sure that the TURTLE-5K-robot can move across the field in an elegant and fast way and that it can take penalties. The ultimate ambition of the project over the next few years is to teach a team of robots to play real soccer. Ever since 1997, the RoboCup federation has devoted itself to developing intelligent soccer robots that should be able to beat the current human FIFA champions in 2050.

Cooperation between academic institutions and the industry are of great added value when it comes to the quality of the education programs. Students are given the opportunity to come into contact with the industry through challenging projects and the industry can use new ideas and up-to-date knowledge to its advantage.