Amigo reached the finals of the @Home League, as did a team from Groningen, two German teams, and Chinese team. “These five are the best in the world, technologically”,  says dr. Tijn van der Zant, general board member of the RoboCup Federation and co-founder of the @Home League. For the finals on Sunday afternoon the non-technical aspect of the robots will be put to the test.

The assignment is easy enough: show the judges all you’ve got. The judging panel includes Lieven Scheire en Tijn van der Zant and is located in the arena that looks like a roofless bungalow. Based on their initial scores, which will account for half of their final scores, the teams are invited to perform. After a ten-minute demonstration, the judges can ask questions.

The German team from Koblenz starts. Their robot should empty a bottle in a glass. It’s a good thing the demonstrator and team captain brought a towel. The presentation by the Groningen team isn’t flawless, either. The speech command ‘bring the medicin’ doesn’t register, although that’s because of the speakers next to the arena. Still, robot Sudo manages to alert remote assistance and eventually, two first aiders arrive to help.

Amigo is third in line. She explains what she does and displays a hint of self-mockery: “Hopefully, I don’t mess up this time”, she says during an assignment where she’s supposed to grab a can of 7Up. She did a good job not picking up the can of Coke that was also on the table. There’s applause when she manages to hands the can to Tech United team member Tim de Jager.

The second German team, from Bonn, has their robot offer the judges a barbecue. And this is where it gets exciting, because the current world champion is thought to be just as good as the team that’s in the lead: China. “Having a robot like this that can grill sausages and bring beer is every German’s dream”, according to the German team captain. The robot even manages to pop the crown of a beer bottle.

Frontrunner China demonstrates two robots that must work together. One robot finds out what the other wants to drink and has to bring it over. Due to technical problems, the assignment is delayed and the team can’t complete the task within ten minutes.