RoboCup Crailsheim: ER-Force vs. NAMeC

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The next match against the French team NAMEC will start soon!

Unfortunately, after there were some problems with the ER Force radio and also the strategy of the French team (e.g. their goalkeeper could only defend our goal, but not their own), the game ended early after a penalty goal by the human referee and a legitimate goal by our robots: NAMeC forfeits!

Unfortunately, the game itself wasn’t all that worth seeing. In order to still enable an exciting and fulfilling gaming experience, especially for the spectators on site, the game between place 2 (ER-Force) and place 3 (LUHbots) was brought forward instead, so that this will take place directly afterwards!

For the die-hard fans, here is the link to the stream of the game ER-Force vs. NAMeC (increasingly peppered with cynical comments towards the end):

RoboCup Crailsheim: ER-Force vs. RoboTeam Twente

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Now the last game of the evening is coming up: ER-Force vs. RoboTeam Twente.

Between games we tested all robots, continued to work diligently on the new robot and fixed a number of bugs. At around 8:40 p.m. we start the last game of the evening. Meanwhile without spectators, we and RoboTeam Twente sit relaxed in the hall with shared pizza and watch our robots drive.

Despite the late hour, all participants were able to enjoy the quiet but exciting game to their fullest. At half time it is already 6:0 for ER-Force. The game is fluid and we can cheer on the robots without big interruptions. The work was worth it, all robots drive over the large field without any problems. Hence, our team members were able to watch the game pretty relaxed.

Over the course of the second half, our team fought hard against a RoboTeam Twente, which got stronger every seconds, starting with the beginning of the very tournament. Therfore, every goal was quite the victory and finally we were able to win the game early with 10:0.

RoboCup Crailsheim: ER-Force vs. TIGERs Mannheim

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Our second game of the day was against our toughest competition, the reigning world champion from Mannheim: TIGERs Mannheim.

After the game started with some delay, we unfortunately had to deal with some radio problems at first. But since we are already tested in this area, we were able to test our radio frequencies in our timeout and choose the best frequency accordingly.

Despite everything, the game wasn’t as comfortable and fluid to watch at the beginning as we are used to from our games with TIGERs Mannheim. Instead, we had to deal with teleporting robots in our software, i.e. the positions of the robots within our software changed suddenly and unpredictably by many centimeters. Apparently, the robots appeared with a few seconds delay at places where they had previously driven. The reason for this is initially unknown.

Towards the end of the game, however, we were able to find out the reason for this: the data from the cameras was transmitted both over the LAN and over the W-LAN. However, the data from the W-LAN arrives much later than the data via the LAN. Accordingly, we received both “past” and present data, which we interpreted as “current” data at all times. Accordingly, our software could not handle this problem and the robots drove as if they were slightly drunk.

After the W-LAN was switched off, we were able to drive to the balls properly as usual and play our usual nice game. Unfortunately, nine minutes of regular time had already elapsed by this point, leaving us with less than a minute.

Overall, we had to admit defeat to TIGERs Mannheim with a 0:2.

RoboCup Crailsheim: ER-Force vs. luhbots

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Our weekend was originally supposed to start with a game against the French team NAMeC, but it seems that the majority of their members have been caught in a strike when they travelled from Bordeaux, which is why only very few members and robots are currently present. Therefore, after consultation with luhbots, we offered to swap the game ER-Force vs. NAMeC with the game ER-Force vs. luhbots that was originally planned for Sunday.

Hence, we are now playing our first game against the Hanoverian team luhbots. Despite the switch, the game will still be played on only one half of the field, as both luhbots and NAMeC are Division B teams.

In contrast to Division A, in which our team plays, Division B is an entry-level league for new teams. Accordingly, the playing field is smaller and only 6 robots per team play a game.

In addition, both teams agree to play without ball placement, i.e. the ball is not automatically placed by robots if it goes out of bounds, but instead by the human referee. This rule is mandatory for games between Division A teams, but can be waived in the case of Division B games.

After the live commentary by ER-Force is ready, we can finally start!

Something new happens shortly after the kick-off: with little sensitivity, the luhbots’ robots severely damaged a ball through excessive dribbling, so that it had to be pulled out of circulation. At least their dribbler seems strong enough. Luckily we have enough spare balls with us so that after a lot of laughter we can continue straight away.

Our new prototype was able to play for the first time (see video, number 15). It even scored a goal right away, but the ball was too fast and the goal wasn’t counted.

Nevertheless, we were able to win the game 4:0. Overall, the game was relatively smooth and enjoyable to watch. For such a new team, the game was a really good effort.

Unfortunately, we are currently well behind schedule due to technical problems. According to the current status, the next game RoboTeam Twente vs. luhbots will take place at 3:00 p.m.