Category Archives: ER-Force

RoboCup Eindhoven: Arrival

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After nearly a year, it’s finally time again: RoboCup 2024 is here, this year in the Dutch city of Eindhoven! Teams from all over the world and various leagues are currently traveling and will all try to claim first place in their respective leagues!

Of course, our team is also ready to go, and this morning 14 students from our team boarded a train in Nuremberg heading to Essen. What they didn’t know at the time: The train in Düsseldorf that would take them to Venlo doesn’t exist. This brings back memories of a popular meme from last year:

So, our travel group will likely arrive at the hotel in Eindhoven with an estimated delay of one hour and begin to take over the hotel rooms and floors for us and our robots. Starting next week, our team will be allowed into the hall!

By the way: Besides us, this year’s Division A will also feature teams ZJUNlict (China), KIKS (Japan), RoboCîn (Brazil), luhbots (Germany), TIGERs Mannheim (reigning world champion, Germany), Immortals (Germany), RoboDragons (Japan), and RoboTeam Twente (Netherlands). From experience, TIGERs Mannheim, ZJUNlict, and Immortals are particularly strong teams that we need to surpass!

German Open: Review

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Now that the German Open, the second April tournament, has come to an end, we would like to take a brief look back at the event.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t win a trophy at this tournament either, but we gained valuable insights into our system and were able to significantly improve it towards the end. We started the tournament on Wednesday with completely new motor drivers and the associated problems, but we gradually got a handle on them.

It’s a pity that our last game on Saturday against TIGERs Mannheim was just a friendly match: If we had performed the same way the day before against Immortals, the tournament might have ended quite differently. But no matter: With the experiences and measurement data we were able to collect from this tournament, we can now enter RoboCup 2024 stronger and hopefully win big prizes there.

But the tournament was not only valuable for us: TIGERs Mannheim, Immortals, and Tritons also surely gained valuable insights. It’s a shame that Tritons couldn’t play in the end. It seems there is still some work to be done before real games can be played. All the more helpful that they had many opportunities at the German Open to exchange ideas with our team members and those of TIGERs and gather helpful input on how to solve the upcoming problems.

And finally, the tournament also seemed to be well received by the spectators: On the final day, the field was surrounded by visitors during both our friendly match and the final, eagerly following the game’s progress. Time and again, some children started chanting “ER-Force” – to such an extent that we had to assure TIGERs that we had not paid any of the spectators to be our cheering squad.

So we leave Kassel with the firm hope of being able to visit again next year when it’s time for RoboCup German Open 2025!

German Open: Friendly: ER-Force vs. TIGERs Mannheim

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Although we weren’t supposed to have another game today since Tritons unfortunately can’t compete in the small final (they aren’t even in the hall anymore), we are playing a friendly match against TIGERs Mannheim.

As always, the game can be watched on the livestream from TIGERs Mannheim:

This game has a special feature: TIGERs will always play with the same number of robots as we have on the field. This has already led them to take one robot off the field before the game started.

First Half

05:00 The game begins: ER-Force is playing in yellow, TIGERs in blue.
04:06 With a few outbursts, we are actually playing quite well and even have a few shots on goal now and then.
04:06 At some point, there was probably a goal, but none of us noticed. We trust TIGERs on this one, so: Goal for TIGERs.
ER-Force 0 : 1 TIGERs Mannheim
03:36 After heated duels in our half, our robot seems to lose interest and kicks the ball mercilessly out of the field.
03:21 The duels continue in our half. Eventually, TIGERs manage to score.
ER-Force 0 : 2 TIGERs Mannheim
03:02 Still some nice scenes from our robots and occasionally a shot on goal. Definitely a much better performance than the last two days.
02:01 Again, some nice game situations for both sides. Overall, the game is quite fluid, and there are some nice long passes from both teams across the field. A very lively and balanced game.
00:34 The stream of this game is really recommended. We no longer give Mannheim any gaps or breaks; our goal is currently secure.
-00:29 The last minute has been dangerously long in our half, and there have been some scary moments. But the first half ends without another goal, our defense still holds.

Second Half

05:00 And the second half begins.
04:28 Again, the ball is in our half for a long time, and our goalkeeper is intensely arguing with one of our field players. Moreover, he simply doesn’t kick the ball away. And so it happens: Goal for Mannheim!
ER-Force 0 : 3 TIGERs Mannheim
04:02 OK, that was unfortunate: For some reason, our communication didn’t work, maybe someone bumped into it. As a result, our robots just stood still, and TIGERs could shoot into the undefended goal.
ER-Force 0 : 4 TIGERs Mannheim
02:50 Now the game is playing a bit more in the Mannheim half. Let’s see if we can score a goal against the world champion.
01:24 An extremely long game in midfield and the TIGERs’ half. Our robots keep trying for the goal, but they just can’t get past the defense and the goalkeeper.
00:59 That was close! A short duel near our goal, then the shot, but just missed! The score remains unchanged.
00:52 But now, unfortunately, it happened: Still dueling in our half, but our robots sometimes just don’t shoot. Probably the light barrier doesn’t recognize the ball. Be that as it may: Goal for TIGERs.
ER-Force 0 : 5 TIGERs Mannheim
00:34 And timeout for us: The AI is set to aggressive.
00:09 That’s the disadvantage of Main Aggressive: When the ball comes into our half, there are no defenders left. And so another goal is scored against us. But what the heck: It was still worth it.
ER-Force 0 : 6 TIGERs Mannheim
00:00 And so the game unfortunately ends goalless for us. But still, it was a very nice culmination for the tournament: Eight of our robots were on the field and could play for an entire half. Even our Victory Move was not prepared for that; it apparently can’t handle so many robots. So we let TIGERs have their Victory Moves. For now.

German Open: ER-Force vs. Immortals

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After we unfortunately lost our last group match against TIGERs Mannheim this morning at 11:30 AM with a score of 10:00, we now move on to the first semifinal match of the tournament against Immortals at 4:00 PM. The winner of this match will play in the Grand Final tomorrow at 2:00 PM against the winner of the second semifinal match today at 5:30 PM. The losers will play in the small final tomorrow at 12:30 PM.

Since yesterday’s match against Immortals ended with only a one-goal lead for them, we have a realistic chance of taking the win in this game. If we lose, there is also the possibility that we won’t play in this tournament anymore, as Tritons have not yet played a game and the small final tomorrow may be canceled as a result.

First Half

05:00 Both Immortals and our team are getting ready for the match. It will probably start in a few minutes. ER-Force is playing in yellow, Immortals in blue.
05:00 With a four-minute delay, the game starts with a kickoff by us. Once again, our robot doesn’t shoot, so after five minutes, the ball is released for all players. The ball ends up out of bounds.
04:40 The corner is actually dangerous for us, but our goalkeeper can defuse the situation.
04:05 Another dangerous throw-in by Immortals, but the pass goes past its receiver and directly out of bounds.
03:57 But now it happens: Immortals play the ball across our penalty area to a teammate on the other side, who doesn’t hesitate and shoots past our goalkeeper into the goal!
ER-Force 0 : 1 Immortals
03:50 This time it’s a chip goal by Immortals, but it doesn’t count, as the ball must not exceed 15 cm in height when shooting at goal.
03:15 The game continues to take place only in our half. A dangerous ball towards our penalty area is cleared by one of our robots, although out of bounds, which is a foul.
02:30 After some skirmishing, the ball is shot at our goal again, but so weakly that it poses no real threat to our goalkeeper.
01:47 Finally, an attack by us. But with only 3 robots in play, the attack fizzles out. It’s hard to mount a successful attack with just one striker.
01:39 And here comes the counter: During a nice attack by Immortals, their robot manages to shoot past our goalkeeper into the goal.
ER-Force 0 : 2 Immortals
00:41 There are several attacks on our goal, but our goalkeeper successfully defends multiple times.
00:37 What looks like a goal against us is fortunately a double touch by Immortals. Lucky for us, the score remains unchanged.
00:00 With two goals for Immortals, we go into halftime.

Second Half

05:00 With four robots for us and five for Immortals, the second half begins. At least this time we managed the kickoff successfully.
04:51 And already we are down to three robots. Our new motor drivers tend to get very hot and often need a short cooldown.
04:02 Actually, some really nice moments for our team. But unfortunately, our attacker lacks the passing options for his attacks, so the attack fizzles out into a sideline out.
03:30 With a fourth robot in play, our attacks and their dangers slowly increase, but unfortunately, no goal has been scored yet. The game is now visibly taking place in Immortals’ half.
02:51 The first time we seriously had a shot on goal. Unfortunately, it was a bit too obvious, so it didn’t go in.
02:38 A quick timeout by us to test a robot. After the test results are acceptable, it is promptly put in, giving us five robots again.
01:54 That was lucky! Immortals score a goal against us, but they also commit a foul by having a robot in our penalty area. Thus, the goal doesn’t count.
01:11 We have to substitute a robot again. Since this is now the sixth time this half, we receive a yellow card as only five substitutions per half are allowed.
01:02 The ball looked dangerous right from the kick-off, and it proved to be: Another goal by Immortals against us!
ER-Force 0 : 3 Immortals
00:00 Thus, the game ends with Immortals winning 3:0.

German Open 2024

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Less than two weeks after our last tournament in Crailsheim, our team heads straight to Kassel for the GermanOpen 2024. This is the first time in years that the tournament is being held with major leagues like ours, after having been exclusively for the junior leagues in the past. Our last participation in the German Open in 2016 was also the last time this tournament was offered for our SSL league.

The tournament itself runs from this Thursday through Sunday, with the group stage taking place on Thursday and Friday, followed by the knockout games and finals on Saturday. The schedule can be viewed at this link. A permanent livestream can be found on the YouTube page of the TIGERs Mannheim.

Participants in this tournament, besides us, include the TIGERs Mannheim, who are again favorites for the title as they were at the Crailsheim tournament, the German team Immortals, and the young American team Tritons. We are particularly curious about the latter team’s performance, as their qualification video for the RoboCup did not give the impression that their robots could even drive.