Category Archives: ER-Force

School Visit – Willstätter-Gymnasium in Nuremberg

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On Friday, May 9th, 2025, we – Robotics Erlangen – had the pleasure of visiting the Willstätter-Gymnasium in Nuremberg. Starting at 2 p.m., we had the fantastic opportunity to engage with students from all grade levels as part of the school’s Forschungs-AG (Research Club) – including a dedicated Robotics group of 5th graders who are just beginning their journey into technology and programming.

With us: two of our autonomous soccer robots, which we regularly use in national and international competitions. The students’ excitement was immediate – many were fascinated by how our robots can “understand” the field, orient themselves, detect the ball, and aim for the goal – all without any remote control.

In addition to presenting our work and giving insights into robotics at the Faculty of Engineering at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, students were especially curious about the technical details:
How do robots “think”? What’s behind camera-based object recognition? How are movements planned? And how do the robots communicate with one another?

At the same time, we were truly impressed by the students’ own projects within the Research Club. One highlight was a sustainable garden irrigation system, designed to be both ecologically and energy efficient. Automated, power-saving, and environmentally conscious – exactly the kind of innovation we need for the future!

We’d like to sincerely thank the Willstätter-Gymnasium for the invitation and the inspiring exchange. It was wonderful to see so much curiosity and creativity among the next generation of young researchers. We’re looking forward to seeing some familiar faces again – perhaps soon at FAU!

RoboCup German Open 2025: ER-Force vs. TIGERs Mannheim

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Now the time has finally come: The final match of the German Open will take place this Sunday at 12:30 PM between our team and the TIGERs Mannheim. After we were able to hold our ground quite well against the Mannheim team during this tournament, we can expect an exciting game here!

First Half

05:00 Both teams are preparing for the match. Our team is playing as the yellow team with—believe it or not—ELEVEN robots, while the TIGERs are in blue, of course, also with 11 robots.
05:00 The match kicks off on time at 12:30 PM with a kickoff for TIGERs. But right away, a timeout for ER-Force due to issues with Ra and the radio connection.
03:56 There are intense duels between the ER-Force robots and those of TIGERs in our half. Our robots are giving it everything they’ve got. The result: One of our high-kick flaps goes flying through the air!
03:41 Another very tense situation right in front of our goal. The ball keeps getting passed back and forth between our defense and the attackers, but our defenders ultimately manage to defuse the situation!
03:06 After some maneuvers in the Mannheim half, they strike back with a counterattack, unfortunately resulting in a goal from the side!
ER-Force 0 : 1 TIGERs Mannheim
02:33 The dangerous situations continue, but our robots are defending bravely so far. Both teams now have a yellow card, meaning only 10 robots are allowed to play!
02:17 Very well cleared by our goalkeeper! A throw-in by TIGERs near our penalty area turns into a dangerous attack on our goal, but the goalkeeper confidently defends with a chip kick.
01:35 This time, a small attack from our robots, with some of our field players showing great skills. Unfortunately, it does not result in a dangerous situation for the Mannheim team.
00:46 Our team is not showing any weaknesses: They relentlessly block every attempt to attack our goal.
00:23 A nice attack from our robots on the TIGERs’ goal, although the finishing power is lacking. The subsequent counterattack from Mannheim is successfully intercepted by our defense.
-00:02 The last attack from Mannheim on our goal, but it doesn’t pose a real threat. With that, both teams head into the five-minute halftime break.

Second Half

05:00 Without switching sides, the second half begins with a kickoff by ER-Force. Will our team manage to equalize?
04:42 Strong defense by our goalkeeper! A powerful attack by TIGERs, but our goalkeeper clears the ball towards midfield!
04:37 But unfortunately, now: The immediate follow-up attack is successful, and TIGERs extend their lead to 2:0!
ER-Force 0 : 2 TIGERs Mannheim
03:46 The dominance of TIGERs is clearly visible: The ball spends most of the time in our half. Nevertheless, we are holding our ground; despite the two conceded goals, our defense has been very strong so far!
02:56 Our defensive wall is rock solid: As soon as TIGERs find an opportunity for an attack, the wall closes in front of our goal and eliminates any danger.
02:22 A nice attack from our robots, but once again, we lack the finishing power to be truly dangerous!
01:43 What a scene in our penalty area! One attack on our goal after another, but with luck and relentless marking, we manage to prevent any further damage!
00:53 Our goalkeeper is as strong as ever and does not give up his goal easily! Unfortunately, we receive a red card after accumulating two active yellow cards and getting another one. A shame, as the first of these yellow cards would have expired in just four seconds.
-00:15 After one last effort and an incorrect interruption by the AI referee, the game finally ends 2:0 in favor of Mannheim.

Looking back, this match was a beautiful showcase of the current state of the Small Size League. In a very fluid game, both teams demonstrated their skills brilliantly.

Although TIGERs Mannheim dominated the match throughout, we still managed to launch attacks from time to time and defended even harder. As a result, we are still very satisfied with the outcome and take away many insights and opportunities for improvement for the next tournament, which will take place next week in Crailsheim!

Team-Sync since December 2024

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Our multi-day workshop is just around the corner and promises not only significant progress in a short amount of time but also plenty of team spirit! In addition to the intensive work on our projects, there will be joint cooking and dining to encourage exchange, as well as a relaxed game night for a bit of variety.

Before we kick off our workshop at the end of this week, here is a quick update on our current progress.

Electronics Subteam

New Funkmaster

Do you remember the MCon that we sawed apart at RoboCup? To restore the lost functionality, new ones have been ordered! We had some difficulties with the radio transceiver and its firmware, which is why we also ordered new devices. This not only solves the firmware issues but also eliminates the need to use two radio transceivers at the same time.

Another innovation: We can now measure location-dependent inductance, which significantly improves the movement of our pistons. We detailed this in this year’s ETDP. Additionally, our robots have been repaired and are now ready for the upcoming tournaments – set to get back into action!

Firmware Subteam

Firmware has 25 new radio modules from HBC, which will be picked up next week – this will greatly improve our communication. Data logging on the robot is now much faster, but the SD cards could still be a bottleneck. We made significant progress in dribbling: the new dribbler passed the tests successfully and runs very smoothly.

The absolute highlight is our new radio protocol, which we developed together with the software team. It will be a real breakthrough: precise position data, Kalman filter directly in the robot, and tracking that is more accurate than ever before. Instead of vague error messages, it now provides exact information like position, speed, and even ball control in real-time.

The data rate from HBC has already been increased, and the first parts of the protocol have been implemented – although not everything has been tested yet.

Mechanics Subteam

The mechanics team has arranged small gifts for our sponsors – a nice gesture of appreciation.

left: old dribbler, right: new dribbler

In addition, the coil measurement setup has been further improved, and a new version of the battery holder has been installed. The team is also working on finding more cost-effective manufacturing options for Omniwheels and selecting suitable bearings for the subwheels.

Another highlight: A dribbler prototype has been assembled – an exciting step forward!

Software Subteam

A software team member has written a paper in which a model for the kicker was developed to enable simulations and increase the kicker’s efficiency. Additionally, a new move was implemented that performs robot measurements and checks the driving accuracy of the robots using the field lines.

Besides the radio protocol, which was developed together with firmware, there were also a few experiments with machine learning, and a move was worked on that should enable the robot to dribble backward around opponents. Internally, the software was also revised to make everything even better and more efficient.

University Group Meeting & Open Lab Day

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As every year, we will also participate in the University Group Meeting on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, at the Red Square of the Faculty of Engineering. We’ll have an information booth there all day, where we’ll share insights about Robotics and the RoboCup with anyone interested. Additionally, we’ll set up a small field where you can drive the robots manually.

We are also hosting our Open Lab Day on October 30, 2024. This will likely take place in the basement of the Blue Skyscraper at TechFak, where we’ll demonstrate our robots live in a test match against ourselves. You can learn more about this at the University Group Meeting or in an upcoming post.

Feel free to drop by at both events. We look forward to seeing you there!

RoboCup 2024: Review

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Tournament

In our Division A of the Small Size League of RoboCup this year, nine teams from five countries competed against each other. A special feature was the two newcomers RobôCIn and luhbots, who this year made the step from Division B to a larger field and more robots in Division A. After three setup days, the teams first competed in a 4-team and 5-team group during the two group match days. The top three teams from each group then advanced to the knockout phase over the next two match days. By securing second place in our group, we were able to secure a good starting position here. In the double elimination mode, the respective group winners and runners-up could each lose once without being eliminated from the tournament. Thanks to our good performances on the field, we managed to secure a solid third place for our team despite many games in the lower bracket. Second place went to the Chinese team ZJUNlict and the current and past world champion is TIGERs Mannheim. A special mention should definitely go to the two new teams who managed to play exciting and balanced games against long-standing Division A teams almost right from the start. Particularly, the fourth place of RobôCIn is an extremely strong performance. At this point, we would also like to expressly thank luhbots, Immortals, RoboTeam Twente, RobôCIn, and TIGERs Mannheim for their help and extraordinary commitment to the league. This is by no means a matter of course.

 

Our Team in the Tournament

For us, the RoboCup started off quite bumpy again, and the first fears arose that we might experience a similar disaster to 2023 in Bordeaux. Fortunately, this was not the case. Instead, we managed to solve individual problems step by step. During the setup days and our first game, we still struggled considerably with our radio system and the control of the robots. But by the second game, we were already capable of fielding 11 robots. Nonetheless, we refrained from doing so in the group phase and fielded 8 robots each time. This was mainly because we were still plagued by overheating issues, and substitute robots were therefore extremely valuable.

For the knockout stage, we took a bold step and removed unnecessary parts from the module connector PCB and equipped our motor boards with heat sinks. Together with a relentless hunt for individual faulty robot components, we were able to increase the reliability of our fleet so that we could permanently field 11 robots in the knockout phase. This is a strong performance by the entire team, and we are excited about what the future holds with the now fully functional robots. Thus, we can conclude this RoboCup, tired from the strenuous days, but satisfied with our progress and success.

 

Betting Game

A novelty this year was the betting game we organized for RoboCup 2024. Just like in conventional football, bets could be placed on individual games, the outcome of the group phase, and the overall tournament. The most points were collected by our team members Michi and Mike, who stayed at home. Due to the great support from other teams, we plan to set up an official betting game for RoboCup next year.

 

Impressions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RoboCup 2025

Now that RoboCup 2024 in Eindhoven has ended and all teams have departed, we look to the future. We look forward to an interesting year with many improvements and innovations in our strategy and robots, as well as visits from other teams. But of course, our main focus is on the next RoboCup 2025. It will take place from July 15 to July 21, 2025, in the Brazilian coastal city of Salvador. The first images of the location already make us excited for sun, warmth, and of course a RoboCup hall right next to one of Brazil’s beautiful beaches.

See you in Salvador!