maxon drives Edge to RoboCup victory

In 2024, at the RoboCup Junior held in Eindhoven, Netherlands, the Japanese team “Edge” emerged as the undisputed stars. They won first place in four categories at the event.

“Edge” is a team composed of three students from Ritsumeikan Moriyama High School: Ryosuke Aoki, in charge of hardware, Yuta Nakagawa, responsible for programming, and captain Kotaro Watanabe, who oversees circuit design.

This annual global event brings together young talent in robotics, and this year, maxon played a crucial role in their victory.

The RoboCup Junior Soccer Challenge is a two-on-two soccer competition involving autonomous robots. The robots must move skillfully on the field, control the ball, and avoid crossing the boundary lines. To succeed, responsive control is essential for quick wheel direction changes and speed adjustments.
 

The team, who finished fourth in last year’s competition, was determined to take the top spot this time. This year, they focused on creating a stable machine—one that would perform consistently, even during competition, where unexpected incidents often occur.

Collisions that cause damage are common in competitions. For the hardware, the team aimed to make the machine as durable as possible. They upgraded the soldering iron to a higher-performance model and ensured precise soldering. They also optimized screw positions to facilitate quick component replacement in case of damage and always had spare circuits ready.

For the software, they aimed to make the program easy to debug. In fact, due to differences in court slipperiness between the Japanese and world competitions, they had to rewrite parts of the program on-site.
 

Why They Chose maxon: Instant Responsiveness

The rules state that robots must stay within the boundary lines, therefore both speed and responsiveness were essential features for the motors. 
For a high school team, maxon’s motors were not the least expensive option but the team was determined to incorporate maxon, so they applied to maxon’s Young Engineering Program (YEP).

“When it comes to the required responsiveness and speed, maxon’s coreless motors have unmatched performance”.,” says Kotaro.

Team “Edge” concluded their activities by winning first place in the world championship. Now, all three team members are moving on to a new challenge: university entrance exams. Simultaneously, they plan to promote the sport and mentor their successors. Their willingness to share their accumulated knowledge and methods with younger students hints at a bright future for technology.