Category Archives: Teams

Scrimmage against the German Team, 2-1

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.

Video

Koala Backpacks

I drove south for an hour last night to enjoy the company of some RoboCuppers. I met up with Todd Hester of Austin Villa as well as the RoboCup “celebrity” (so says an Australian newspaper) Michael Quinlan who took me to their robotics lab. There I was introduced to the (in)famous Mohan. After some segway play, we went out for burgers, drinks, and old fashioned nerd talk. I met some other members from the UT Comp Sci labs and even saw a man wearing a Koala backpack. It was a short trip to the city, as now I am back at home. I may even log some work hours for the trip, since discussion was had about the beginning of a collaborative research paper.

Prelim List of Interested RoboCup 2007 teams

Here is a list released today of all teams that have ‘expressed their intention of participation’ for RoboCup 2007 in Atlanta. There are 27 teams total (though some teams may be omitted due to spam filters!).

– Impossibles Team
– Team ARAIBO
– Dutch Aibo Team
– UTAustinVilla
– TJArk
– Team Chaos
– The-CAT
– CMDash
– Microsoft Hellhounds
– NUbots
– SpelBots
– UChile
– WrightEagle
– ISocRob 4LL team
– Hamburg Dog Bots
– Twaves
– TecRams
– Northern Bites
– Cerberus
– GermanTeam
– Eagle Knights
– Brown University
– LTU Blue Devils
– Kouretes
– MetroBots
– DEN-INU
– SPQRLegged

Notable absences:

rUNSWift. Second place finisher from last year. Looks like William Uther, rUNSWift’s leader, one of the main organizers from last year, and one of the dominant forces in RoboCup since its inception, will not be entering his team for another year. I had a chance to talk to Will last year in Bremen and the word was that 2006 was his last year at RoboCup because the organization he worked for was shifting priorities. Sadly, at least from this list, it looks like that fate came true.
UPenn. I had heard through the grapevine that their participation this year was not certain. David Cohen, their student captain, graduated from UPenn last spring. Here’s hoping that their name was inadvertently forgotten on this list and that participate this year.

Notable additions:
CMDash. They qualified but didn’t compete last year in Bremen. This year, the word is that they are going to give it a real go for the last (potentially) year of the four-legged league. Awesome.
MetroBots, LTU Blue Devils, Brown University : three US teams who weren’t in Bremen last year and want to come to Atlanta this year. I suppose the proximity doesn’t hurt!

We shall see how the list shapes up. 27 teams applying and 24 slots means that there will be a lot fewer pissed off teams who don’t qualify. Also, it gives us, a second-year team, a better shot than last year, where 35 teams applied for 27 spots (I just checked the number). The downside of fewer teams applying tells me that some teams don’t have enough Aibos functioning, have moved onto newer, more exciting robot platforms, or simply have just lost their interest in the four-legged league.

The 2007 Rules were supposed to be announced today — I am really looking forward to see them — but I’ve seen no announcement. Hopefully they’ll come soon, as well as the announcement of the 2007 challenges, of which we want to spend a lot of time on this year.