Category Archives: Mechanics

RoboCup 2024: Second Group Matchday

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Heat Issues

Since none of our matches lasted longer than an hour, it can be said with certainty that this RoboCup is one of the smoothest in a long time. We survived the first two matches of the day well against LUHBots and KIKS, but the heat issues became more severe. Despite a lot of code for error detection and handling, as well as constant tweaking of the regulation, a drastic decision had to be made. As Dino so nicely put it: “We fight fire with saws.” The solution to the heat problem was to saw off unnecessary parts from all module connector boards. Subsequently, the boards were sanded to avoid sharp edges. Meanwhile, heatsinks had to be attached to all motor boards, and the shells were perforated with holes. This several-hour job, which involved almost the entire team, paid off. In the match against ZJUNlict, we did not have a single heat-related failure, and we performed better than any other participant in Group A against them.

Group Matches

After playing our first group match against RobôCIn yesterday, we had three more group matches today. We started the day with a balanced match against KIKS, which ended 1:1 due to an unfortunate last-second goal. We won our match against LUHBots at noon clearly with 2:0. The last match of the group phase was our match against ZJU, where we defended strongly but ultimately lost 0:1 to this really good team. The results of the group stage can be seen below.

Standings

Position Group A Group B
1 ZJUNlict TIGERs
2 ER-Force Immortals
3 RobôCIn RoboDragons
4 KIKS Robo Team Twente
5 LUHBots

Outlook

By finishing second in our group, we qualified for the knockout phase. Our next match is tomorrow at 11:30 against TIGERs Mannheim. Since we start in the upper bracket of our double elimination tournament format, we still have at least one more game even if we lose this match, allowing us to stay in the tournament.

RoboCup 2024: Final Setup Day – Technical Challenge and Radio Problems?

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The last setup day has arrived. To prepare our sleep schedule for the upcoming days, we headed to the hall at 7:30 AM today. Despite many tired faces, the focus was immediately there. It had to be, as our Technical Challenge “Black and White” starts at 8 PM, where the efficient changing of shell colors is tested. This challenge was introduced to make the different teams more recognizable to the audience.

LEAGUE TEST MATCH:

Yesterday, for the first time, we were able to conduct a test match against ourselves to identify many errors. Today, it was the TIGERs’ turn. Unlike us, they played a test match against RobôCIn to demonstrate the game flow to the entire league.

 

 

 

 

 

 

RADIO ISSUES:

Meanwhile, a third of the strategy team is working on fixing radio issues. If you fear that this RoboCup might face a similar downfall as the last one, let me reassure you. The radio now works well for 8 robots, which is sufficient for the group phase, as teams can play with 8 robots if they wish. However, this won’t work in the knockout phase, where each team can field 11 robots if they are able. Testing the solution is proving to be a persistent problem due to random parameters and outcomes. However, we remain confident that we will solve this in time.

 

ROBOT MANUFACTURING:

Not only the strategy but also the mechanics team is working at full speed. They are continuously manufacturing parts to have more robots in stock (and hopefully on the field). Special attention is being paid to the wheels to ensure they run more smoothly than before. However, a robot is not only made up of parts but also of firmware, which runs on the robot. Since there are still heat issues, the only solution is to keep at it, test, and not lose hope. Ultimately, errors, substitutions, and sources of damage should be minimized as much as possible.

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.