Category Archives: ER-Force

Workshop with UruBots

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Hardly back in Germany, we’re already starting the exam period with a joint workshop with the freshly established Uruguayan team UruBots. There was already a kick-off meeting in Germany last August with the team’s two professors.

The 13 students and 2 instructors are from the newly established University UTEC in northern Uruguay, right on the border with Brazil. Since mid-July, they’ve been traveling all over Germany and have already achieved some successes: The team secured the first place in a discipline at the FIRA RoboWorld Cup in Wolfenbüttel. After all the exciting experiences, the journey of the Uruguayans, who by the way, hardly anyone has ever been to a country other than their homeland, now ends at FAU in Erlangen.

After the workshop starts with introductions and presentations about our university group, it ramps up after lunch in our local university cafeteria: Our guests tinker with robots, program their first AI, and evaluate how they can improve their robots. The day ends with a small test game in our basement.

After an exciting first day where both teams learned a lot, the second day is all about cultural exchange and getting to know each other: In mixed groups, we cook spinach lasagna and Chivito, a kind of burger served on a French baguette with vegetables, fries, and a special sauce.

While one group prepares both dishes together, the rest of us engage in a traditional Uruguayan card game: Erizo. We didn’t do too bad, but Bavarians seem to have a natural knack for card games, so what did we really expect.

Finally, we conclude the workshop with presentations about UTEC and our university. A big thanks to Ms. Claudia Barnickel, who represented and presented our university excellently in Spanish. Now, the Uruguayans just have to hop on the train and enjoy the last few days of vacation in Germany. Back home, they’ll continue with the ambitious robot-building project.

From our side, we can only hope to see our friends from Uruguay again soon at RoboCup and remain in hopeful anticipation of the young team’s further successes.

Carpet Installation 2023

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Unfortunately, in December of last year, we fell victim to water damage, which turned our basement into a construction site for a while. However, thanks to the strong support from the university, we not only managed to navigate the problem skillfully, but we also found a sustainable solution. A big thank you to FAPS, who offered us a replacement field with camera and tinkering corner within 24 hours of our request (!), and to the Department of Computer Science, who put all their energy into restoring the room.

However, our old carpet did not escape the water damage completely. Additionally, it had already seen better days, so shortly after RoboCup 2023, it was time for a new carpet. First, we had to make space for it in the basement.

Only together were we able to bring the heavy, over five-meter-long carpet roll from FAPS to the basement. Once again, many heartfelt thanks for accepting and storing it during RoboCup. We had to navigate it through some tight corners and over high steps.

After safely getting the carpet roll onto the playing field, a significant advantage of our new carpet became evident. Unlike our previous one, this time we only had a single roll, so we didn’t need to worry about aligning two separate sections while unrolling.

As the final step before setting up the vision system, we needed to stick the field lines to the carpet. Teamwork was crucial once again, as it was the only way to ensure the lines were straight when applied to the carpet.

A special thanks goes to the company Kibek, with their branch in Fürth, which provided us with very competent advice and significant price support when obtaining the carpet.

In the past, we have been able to rely on the honest and knowledgeable advice from the employees in Fürth, and we will gladly do so again in the future!

RoboCup: Final Report

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Now that the RoboCup is already a few days behind us, we’d like to take the opportunity to review the tournament.

Overall, our team was very well prepared, having all the electronic and mechanical components with us, allowing us to respond adequately to every situation with our equipment.

While it’s unfortunate that we ultimately lost due to our radio communication, everyone is already looking forward: Our sponsors Gerhard Schubert and HBC-radiomatic are already offering to address the existing issues with the radio system, so we can soon showcase our full potential.

We’re also looking ahead: Not only are we preparing for the arrival of a team from Uruguay at FAU at the end of July for a joint workshop, but we’re also planning improvements. While nothing works without radio communication, our motor boards have also posed problems. A robust solution needs to be in place by Christmas.

There was a small moment of joy at the end of the tournament: We quickly had the opportunity to take a photo with our friends from TIGERs Mannheim to compensate for the missing match against them.

In the end, we’re happy that the vacation, apart from the unfortunate theft of personal belongings, went very well, and everyone enjoyed it. The wine museum in Bordeaux, the beach holiday on the Atlantic Ocean, or the French National Day in Paris: Many beautiful moments will remain in our team’s memory, making our time together truly unforgettable.

So, there’s only one thing left to say: See you all in Eindhoven 2024!

RoboCup: ER-Force vs. Immortals

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Now it’s time: Our possibly last game of this tournament. We’re playing against the team Immortals, which has already performed brilliantly against TIGERs Mannheim. We’re tense but also relaxed, knowing that we’ve done everything in our power.

By unanimous team decision, our robots have all been retrofitted to the old radio system. Only if everything is on fire will we switch the low numbers to the new radio. Additionally, we’re going into the game with a heterogeneous fleet of old and new robots.

You can find the link to the live ticker as always on the YouTube platform of Twente or under this link.

First Half

05:00 The game will be kicked off soon. We’re playing in white shells as the blue team, Immortals is playing in black shells as the yellow team.
05:00 The game starts with a 7-minute delay at 15:37.
04:42 Apparently, the kick-off isn’t going well, there are constant ball placements and free kicks for Immortals. However, they’re not making use of these free kicks.
04:19 Dangerous situation in our half. Currently, Immortals seems to be playing more stably; we’re defending more through physical presence than through clearances or passes. Also, our robots are moving quite strangely and are therefore not really able to play the ball.
04:18 Immortals take a timeout. One can only speculate why they need this. One noticeable thing was that they always missed the last meters of their “Cola kisses Orange” ball placement maneuver. At least it doesn’t seem to be a hardware timeout, as the robot handler is not on the field.
03:46 And thus, the inevitable happens: A goal against us by Immortals. One of the Immortals bots shoots from the corner towards the center, where his teammate shoots on goal from an acute angle and scores.
ER-Force 0 : 1 Immortals
03:19 Currently, Immortals is clearly dominating; the ball hardly reaches the opponent’s half. The only reason we’re not conceding more goals is that we’re overwhelming our defense with quantity rather than quality: Many robots in our own penalty area. But how long can we keep this up, and how long can our robots handle it?
03:11 Timeout for Immortals again. Apparently, Immortals is also getting a penalty against us. Given the number of fouls we have, this is not surprising; after all, we have two yellow and even a red card. If we get one more card and thus reduce the allowed number of ER-Force bots to 7, we would actually feel the reduction! A novelty for us, as we usually have so few robots that the reduction never affected us.
03:11 Since Immortals didn’t implement a penalty, they seem to have opted for a corner instead. An arbitrary decision, but whatever.
02:20 The game is primarily being played in our penalty area, but no goals are being scored at the moment.
01:49 By now, we already have 2 red cards and a nearly expired yellow card, which means that with our 7 robots on the field, we’re close to the allowed maximum of 8.
01:45 Timeout for ER-Force, presumably related to the radio system.
00:51 We’ve discovered a drawback of “Cola kisses Orange”: When the ball is right on the goalpost in the goal, the two Immortals bots, one on the left and one on the right of the post, try to squeeze the ball together but don’t realize that a post is in the way, so they keep trying over and over again. Quite entertaining.
-00:31 With that, the first half ends after about 40 minutes. In summary, we’re doing better than in the previous games, but still terribly. We hardly manage to get a shot on goal, as our robots are mostly misoriented and their “snouts” are not facing the ball. At least we had a good number of robots on the field, but the radio problems were constantly noticeable.

Second Half

05:00 The second half is kicked off.
04:42 The game starts off excitingly: Our Erhard takes the initiative and rushes directly into the opponent’s half. He even manages to reach the penalty area, but he can’t score. However, Immortals seizes the opportunity to launch a dangerous counter-attack, which we fortunately manage to defend against.
02:54 OK, that was unexpected: It’s our Erhard again who takes the initiative: Initially, he races forward to engage in a duel with the opponent, but due to wild spins, he doesn’t gain the upper hand at first. But then he finally manages it and kicks towards the goal: But the post! Of all things, the post! We didn’t need that, very unfortunate! But great effort from our Erhard, our number 2, for the team.
02:02 I’m starting to get the feeling that they gave our goalkeeper, number 10, a better radio (quite realistic, as the new radio only works with a single bot). At least the keeper saves balls fantastically, clearing a dangerous situation. But the number 3 also shines. Commonality: They’re all old bots, and everyone else is new.
01:35 Another timeout for ER-Force, probably primarily for radio adjustments again.
01:04 Again, lots of duels in our half, but the situation ends harmlessly.
-00:13 One last struggle and a few final attempts, again from Erhard, but unfortunately, we can’t change anything about it: The ball ends up out of play, and the game ends 1-0 in favor of Immortals. Thus, we’re eliminated from the tournament.
00:00 Although it’s disappointing that we’ve been eliminated from the tournament and that our radio had such problems, we’re at least glad that we could offer a much better resistance than in the previous games and in the second half, we could present some good game situations.

RoboCup: RoboDragons vs. ER-Force

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After finishing in 3rd place in our group during the group phase, we’re now playing the first game of the knockout phase. Unfortunately, SRC couldn’t participate in the tournament due to VISA issues, which has made the schedule somewhat strange, so we’ll have one more game after this one regardless of whether we win or lose.

You can find the link to the live ticker as always on Twente’s YouTube platform or at this link.

First Half

05:00 The game begins. We’re playing in blue with 8 robots, and RoboDragons are in yellow with 8 robots as well.
04:02 Surprisingly smooth gameplay so far. However, some robots, including our 9, are mostly motionless on the field. Soon, they and another robot are taken off the field, leaving us with only 6 robots.
03:02 Intense battle in front of our penalty area. Unfortunately, this battle ends successfully for our opponent, and it’s 1-0 for RoboDragons.
RoboDragons 1 : 0 ER-Force
02:54 And now, there are only 4 robots left.
02:43 The game is primarily taking place in our half, although “taking place” is an exaggerated expression, given the limited playing time.
01:53 Unfortunately, there are fewer new ER-Force robots and more old ones because the robots are having problems with the new radio equipment.
01:39 Attack on our goal, but our goalkeeper managed to catch the ball and chip it away.
01:29 And another goal for RoboDragons, making it 2-0 now. We’re also playing with only 3 to 4 robots.
RoboDragons 2 : 0 ER-Force
00:50 Minor interruptions in the live ticker, as we’re currently busy soldering so much that there’s no time for updates. We’re trying to fix the radio issues with the old robots to replace the new robots with old ones. It’s a shame, but there’s nothing we can do.
00:50 Unusual interruption of the game: lizard on the field. It takes a few seconds to catch the lizard and peacefully remove it from the field.
00:05 And another goal against us. Initially, the goalkeeper defended very well, but then he simply stood still and let the ball roll in.
RoboDragons 3 : 0 ER-Force

Second Half

05:00 And the second half kicks off.
03:30 Another goal is scored, making it 4-0 for RoboDragons. Considering that we’re playing with very few robots, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll recover from this deficit.
RoboDragons 4 : 0 ER-Force
03:30 At some point, another goal must have been scored, so it’s already 5-0…
RoboDragons 5 : 0 ER-Force
00:00 At some point, the sixth goal is scored; the exact timing isn’t clearly visible in the stream. The game ends 6-0 in favor of RoboDragons, and we move to the lower bracket of the tournament.
RoboDragons 6 : 0 ER-Force

Overall, it’s very unfortunate that we’ve had so many radio problems. This meant that we played with a significant numerical disadvantage, making it disproportionately difficult to hold and defend goals.

We’re now trying to switch as many new robots as possible to old radios, although this is somewhat frustrating. We’ll see tomorrow at 2:00 PM in our potentially final game how well we manage and if it makes a difference – after all, our old radio wasn’t very good either.