Category Archives: ER-Force

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.

RoboCup Crailsheim

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The time has come on the first weekend in April: The RoboCup Crailsheim will take place in the Karlsberghalle in Crailsheim! We are looking forward to presenting our self-made robots to you and to playing exciting games against our friends TIGERs Mannheim, LUHbots (Hanover), RoboTeam Twente (Netherlands) and NAMeC (Bordeaux, France).

The tournament is a great opportunity to learn more about robotics and artificial intelligence at European universities and to see robots from some of the world’s best teams at play.

Come and experience exciting games and a unique atmosphere!

See you on April 1st and 2nd in Crailsheim!

Workshop February 2023

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In order to get our robots fit for the upcoming games and tournaments and to assemble them, we held a workshop on the last weekend in February 2023.

On Friday afternoon, the work in the subteams started straight away. The construction and calibration of a playing field as a replacement for our currently unusable basement was particularly important on this day. The chair FAPS kindly provided us with an area in its hall. There we first had to roll out the carpet, set up the bands and attach our camera for the vision system to the ceiling. The vision could then be calibrated step by step starting in the evening, so that testing in the field could begin on Saturday. Finally, we let the evening end with a pizza we ordered together and talks.

Saturday started at 10 a.m. with a joint breakfast and a presentation of the work status and goals for the weekend. In electronics, for example, the weekend was all about soldering and testing new boards for the robot fleet.

In the firmware, work was mainly done on the firing logic and the regulation. This also required numerous test drives on the new replacement pitch.

In addition, the strategy team worked diligently on a numerical simulation of our shot. With the background information from the various areas of our team, we have set up a very extensive dynamic model. From this we want to derive improvements in the hardware and a more accurate model for the shooting behavior.

On Sunday we started again with breakfast together, before the projects were then pursued further in the individual sub-teams. In this way, many tasks could be successfully solved before the workshop ended in a cozy get-together in the afternoon.

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Logo Robocup 2023 BordeauxAfter three years of postponement due to corona the time has finally come this year and the Robocup in Bordeaux can take place.

The first phase of the qualification ended at the end of January. In addition to our Team Qualification Paper, we also had to provide a qualification video in which we show the playful abilities of our robots.

In the next phase of the qualification, the team description paper is evaluated by other teams in a peer review process. Afterwards we have one last opportunity to improve the paper before the final decision on qualification is made.