Author Archives: Jakob Wegmann

Schubert Open 2025: Game 3 vs Immortals

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ER-Force vs. Immortals – The First Game of the Day

The game begins with the kickoff for the Immortals. The first few minutes are marked by hectic scenes. There were several ball exchanges, but many went out of bounds, making the game seem a bit rough at first. After some attempts to stabilize on the field, some tape had to be repaired in certain areas due to damage on the ground.

2′: The Immortals start a promising attack, but it ends in a high shot that goes far over the goal. The game slows down a bit as the ball keeps going out of bounds. It seems both teams are struggling to find their rhythm. The Immortals take a short timeout to reorganize.

3′: An exciting situation follows as a goal is scored for ER-Force – but a mistake was made earlier. An extra robot was on the field due to a yellow card, so the goal is disallowed. Meanwhile, the field is repaired again. The game remains thrilling as ER-Force stays on the offensive. There is a corner kick for ER-Force, but it fails due to incorrect ball placement. Additionally, the Immortals receive a red card for a violation related to ball placement.

4′: ER-Force continues attacking and takes control of the field. After an intense duel and a dangerous situation, ER-Force scores the first goal of the game! But the Immortals remain a threat and launch another attack. One of their robots falls to the ground during the duel.

5′: The game picks up speed. Both teams engage in an exciting and fluid duel. The Immortals create some dangerous attacks, but ER-Force defends skillfully and blocks all attempts. At halftime, it looks like the second half will be just as intense.

Halftime:
The game goes into the break with a narrow 1-0 lead for ER-Force.

6′: The kickoff resumes, this time for the Immortals. The match remains intense. ER-Force substitutes a robot and stays in defense.

7′: The Immortals try to push forward, but the ball goes out of bounds again. After another robot substitution for ER-Force, the game stays exciting. ER-Force’s defense holds firm, preventing any dangerous attacks from the Immortals.

8′: Another tense moment for ER-Force as one of their robots temporarily loses connection. However, the defense remains solid, and the Immortals are awarded a penalty kick – possibly due to a positioning error or another rule violation.

9′: Another thrilling duel, this time in ER-Force’s offensive play. The Immortals’ defense is challenged again, but ER-Force stays focused and doesn’t allow any further chances.

10′: The game becomes more fluid and remains highly exciting. Both teams continue to battle intensely, but ER-Force holds the upper hand and manages to secure a narrow 1-0 victory.

Final score: 1-0 for ER-Force
An exciting and hard-fought match, with ER-Force ultimately emerging victorious!

Schubert Open 2025: Game 4 vs TIGERs

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The final match of Schubert Open. Us against TIGERs. The all-decisive game.

1′ The game starts with an exceptionally smooth kickoff. Robo comes in as a substitute, and there’s an early foul.

2′ TIGERs apply dangerous defensive pressure on us and score a goal. Our robot is damaged after a heavy collision, but TIGERs’ shot is too fast, and the goal is disallowed.

3′ The game remains intense and fluid. So far, there have been few complications.

4′ Our defense puts on a strong performance, holding off TIGERs’ pressure.

5′ After extended defensive play, TIGERs finally manage to score a goal. The ball flies out of bounds after the goal, and the score is 1-0 for TIGERs.

Halftime:
The score at halftime is 1-0 for TIGERs.

6′ (2nd half) Throw-in for TIGERs. Our defense remains solid.

7′ TIGERs score another goal. It was almost another one right after, but we defended well. Unfortunately, our keeper made a mistake and missed the ball. It goes out of play, giving TIGERs another throw-in.

8′ TIGERs play an uncomfortable offensive game, and we struggle to keep up.

9′ TIGERs score their fourth goal. The score is now 4-0.

10′ The score is now 5-0 for TIGERs. They seal the game and take the win.

Final score: 5-0 for TIGERs.
Unfortunately, we lost the all-decisive match.

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.

Team-Sync since RoboCup 2024

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To keep you up to date between events, here’s a mid-update with the biggest happenings since the last RoboCup. Let’s jump right in with the …

Electronics Subteam

Theo with his new oscilloscope

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in recent years, it’s that our radio communication isn’t exactly the best. That’s why discussions about a new radio protocol are in full swing, and a new radio master is also being developed.
Furthermore, optimizations are being made everywhere to improve our efficiency in specific areas. Currently, we are improving our shooting mechanism and our battery management system.
In addition to a new oscilloscope (an electronic measuring device), which makes everyone involved very, very happy, the first steps toward a new generation are already underway.

Firmware Subteam

Meanwhile, the Firmware Subteam has a lot of ongoing projects. One goal is to improve our robots’ internal position estimation so that they can stay in one spot without the camera’s assistance. Currently, the robots move slightly and, so to speak, walk away from us.
We also want to improve how our robots store measurement data, as this data is unfortunately often lost. There’s nothing more frustrating than conducting a good test but only being able to use 60% of the data during evaluation.
The most significant innovation likely concerns dribbling. We’ve long wanted to implement actual dribbling rather than our “ER-Force dribbling,” where we push the ball along the housing. Since this has emerged as a major weakness during recent tournaments, we’re deeply focused on improving it.

Mechanics Subteam

On the left, the old wheels with O-rings; on the right, the new ones with X-rings

The Mechanics Subteam also worked on developing a new dribbler. But that’s not all, as the new generation and robot design are being planned here as well. However, the primary focus was laying the groundwork for the coming months. For example, we’ve equipped our new Omniwheels, which now have more Subwheels, with a new type of rings. This allows the robots to drive more smoothly.
Additionally, due to several damages in the basement, it has been cleared out, reorganized, and cleaned multiple times.
The funniest innovation is probably our new robot stands, as we are not allowed to take our old wooden ones overseas.

Software Subteam

As part of the new “dribbling” vision, the paths that the robots ultimately follow in strategy must be planned. To enable this, an interface between the calculation module and the robot module has been developed.
Additionally, we’re trying to incorporate machine learning into our strategy. For example, parameters are optimized automatically, or future scenarios are evaluated and executed optimally for us.
Anyone who has watched the TIGERs play knows that they have some victory moves. To counter this, we’ve also started working on victory dances of our own.

In addition to all this, the first preparations for the upcoming RoboCup 2025 and Schubert Cup 2025 are already underway. We’ve also already held a freshman workshop and the annual general meeting, where Christoph Schmidtmeier and Arthur Sahm were elected as our new board.

Finally, we wish you all happy holidays and a great start to the new year!

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!