Yesterday we scrimmaged the German Team in our lab. The idea is very similar to how we competed at the German Open in April. We sent the German Team a copy of our color table for the lab, and some code that loaded the binary into memory, and Max converted it to the german team’s format.
Our play was comparable to the German Team’s, and we finished the first half leading 1-0 after a lucky shot on goal. The second half ended prematurely after drained batteries and bugs on both sides made play deteriorate, but not until after both teams scored a goal, leaving the final score 2-1. Our major problems came from a bug which keeps the chaser in the grabbing position instead of kicking, resulting in a ball holding penalty, as well as a short episode of ball fright induced by a DEBUG_CHASER switch turned on at half. The German Team’s only issue was an unidentified problem which resulted in the robot ceasing to play soccer and simply swaying back and forth in the middle of the second half.
Unfortunately we were only able to scrimmage 4. v 4. since we our robots are deteriorating quickly. Currently Sam and Pippin are in the shop, and Mike’s leg is about to give out. Even though development on the Aibo is generally straightforward, it is clear that only a few teams (if any!) will be able to muster robots to play again next year if the Aibos are brought back for another year.