RoboCup: RoboTeam Twente vs. RoboDragons

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The second match of the day is between the two teams RoboTeam Twente and RoboDragons. We have high hopes for a strong performance from Twente, especially since they were able to test their robots and fix bugs at the RoboCup Crailsheim, which we organized in cooperation with Gerhard Schubert at the end of March.

Since the composition of the Twente team changes completely every year, such a “pre-tournament” is immensely helpful as a dress rehearsal for the new team before the actual RoboCup. This is also the reason why Twente traditionally has moderate results in the early games of each year but improves significantly as they progress.

It’s worth mentioning that the construction and completion of the Twente robots have now become a league-wide effort: Just yesterday, a member of the mechanical team from TIGERs Mannheim helped Twente assemble two robots, and we have already provided them with several crucial components and even taken on soldering tasks for them. Regardless of being competitors, sportsmanship and friendship prevail.

Given that our bottlenecks currently lie more within other teams, our hardware teams are somewhat in idle mode. It’s all the more rewarding when you can assist another team in creating an exciting tournament.

First Half

05:00 The game seems to be starting with a significant delay. Twente appears to be facing some issues. At least their robot R2D2 seems to be having a lot of fun, spinning in circles, colliding with the barriers, and driving across the field as if it’s intoxicated.
05:00 The match is now beginning with a 15-minute delay. Twente hasn’t completely resolved all their problems but was forced to start by the tournament organizers. RoboDragons have the kickoff.
05:00 Twente seems to be playing with 4 of their robots, while RoboDragons have 8. The allowance is 11 robots per team. Twente’s bots are purple, and RoboDragons’ are black.
04:55 Goal for RoboDragons within seconds of the game. Currently, Twente doesn’t even have a goalkeeper in the goal, either because they have too few robots or their software isn’t functioning properly, and the goalkeeper isn’t in position.
RoboTeam Twente 0 : 1 RoboDragons
04:24 The game is quite leisurely, but at least there’s action, unlike the previous match. RoboDragons attempt a goal, but the Twente keeper makes the save.
04:04 Neither team is getting ball placements right: While Twente is struggling on the tactical level, the dribbler of RoboDragons is too weak to control the ball effectively. Overall, RoboDragons seems to have a better handle on things.
03:45 RoboDragons call a timeout.
03:08 The automatic referee often decides on “No Progress,” indicating that the game situation hasn’t noticeably changed for at least 5 seconds. Combined with the sluggish ball placements, the game is a bit slow but still faster than our previous match.
02:34 Shot on goal by a RoboDragons bot, but the Twente keeper saves again.
02:27 But this time: A goal from the side by RoboDragons.
RoboTeam Twente 0 : 2 RoboDragons
02:16 Almost a goal by Twente! However, the robot touched the ball twice in a row during the kickoff, resulting in a so-called double touch, and the game was stopped earlier.
02:08 RoboDragons immediately respond with a shot on the Dutch goal, but the ball rolls past.
01:57 But this time: RoboDragons score, making it 3-0.
RoboTeam Twente 0 : 3 RoboDragons
00:31 Very fluid but slow-paced game. Nicely finished with a goal from RoboDragons at a sharp angle. RoboDragons clearly dominating the game.
RoboTeam Twente 0 : 4 RoboDragons
00:12 Immediately a double goal by RoboDragons. But, of course, only 1 goal counts, extending their lead to 5 goals.
RoboTeam Twente 0 : 5 RoboDragons
00:00 And that concludes the first half with RoboDragons leading 5-0 during the 5-minute halftime break.

Second Half

02:51 Another goal by RoboDragons. The Twente keeper was bystander as the ball rolled into the goal.
RoboTeam Twente 0 : 8 RoboDragons

RoboCup: Schedule

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Group Stage

Results Group A

Place Team Matches Points Goal Difference
1 TIGERs Mannheim 2 6 20:0 20
2 RoboDragons 2 3 10:10 0
3 RoboTeam Twente 2 0 0:20 -20

Results Group B

Place Team Matches Points Goal Difference
1 ZJUNlict 3 7 7:1 6
2 Immortals 3 5 2:0 2
3 ER-Force 3 2 1:2 -1
4 KIKS 3 1 0:2 -2

Thursday, 07/06/2023

Time Match Article Livestream Final Score
09:00 AM ER-Force vs. Immortals Article Livestream 00:00
12:30 PM RoboTeam Twente vs. RoboDragons Article Livestream 00:10
02:00 PM ER-Force vs. KIKS Article Livestream 00:00
05:00 PM TIGERs Mannheim vs. RoboDragons Article Livestream 10:00
06:30 PM ZJUNlict vs. Immortals Article Livestream 00:00

Friday, 07/07/2023

Time Match Article Livestream Final Score
09:00 AM ER-Force vs. ZJUNlict Article Livestream 01:02
11:00 AM KIKS vs. Immortals Article Livestream 02:00
12:30 PM TIGERs Mannheim vs. RoboTeam Twente Article Livestream 10:00
02:00 PM ZJUNlict vs. KIKS Article Livestream 05:00

Knockout Stage

Friday, 07/07/2023

Time Match Article Livestream Final Score
03:30 PM RoboDragons vs. ER-Force Article Livestream 00:05
05:00 PM Immortals vs. RoboTeam Twente Livestream 05:00

Saturday, 07/08/2023

Time Match Article Livestream Final Score
09:30 AM RoboTeam Twente vs. KIKS Article Livestream 00:04
11:00 AM ZJUNlict vs. RoboDragons Article Livestream 01:00
12:30 PM TIGERs Mannheim vs. Immortals Article Livestream 10:01
02:00 PM KIKS vs. RoboDragons Article Livestream 01:00
03:30 PM ER-Force vs. Immortals Article Livestream 00:01
05:00 PM ZJUNlict vs. TIGERs Mannheim Article Livestream 00:02
06:30 PM Immortals vs. KIKS Article Livestream 07:00

Sunday, 07/09/2023

Time Match Article Livestream Final Score
10:00 AM ZJUNlict vs. Immortals Article Livestream 00:06
01:00 PM TIGERs Mannheim vs. ZJUNlict Article Livestream 03:00

RoboCup: ER-Force vs. Immortals

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Today is the day: the tournament begins. We start directly with the first match of the day in Division A against the now German team, Immortals.

The preparations for the game are already underway, hopefully with minimal delays.

First Half

05:00 The game is likely to start with a slight delay, but that’s quite usual at RoboCups, so everything is as expected.
05:00 With a 10-minute delay, the game actually starts. Surprisingly, there is very little delay for the first game of the tournament.
05:00 Kick-off by Immortals. Immortals is playing in black, ER-Force in white.
04:38 At the beginning of the game, Immortals dominates the field, with the ball mostly in our half. So far, the game isn’t very eventful, with frequent ball placements.
04:29 There seems to be an issue with the vision (the ball disappears at the edge of the field), causing the ball placements to fail. The game is paused until the issues are resolved.
04:19 A dangerous shot on our goal. However, instead of defending, the ER-Force keeper just watches. Luckily, the ball rolls past the goal.
04:13 ER-Force shoots the ball out of the field. It’s not a stellar performance from our team so far.
04:13 ER-Force takes a 3-second timeout, the reason is unclear. At least there are enough problems to justify it.
04:13 Remarkably, not much interesting can happen in a lot of time. Not a second has passed on the clock, and ER-Force calls another timeout.
03:54 After a failed ball placement, Immortals substitutes one of their players.
03:11 Almost a goal, but the game was halted at that moment, so the goal doesn’t count. It’s a shame, as based on the gameplay and performance, Immortals deserved a goal. The most visually appealing ball placement technique from Immortals is the “Cola kisses Orange,” where they grip the ball with two robots and push it to the target point.
03:03 Another missed goal. Apparently, the corner kick was too fast. It’s probably just a matter of time until a valid goal is scored.
02:29 Meanwhile, Immortals has received 4 red cards for ball placement interferences, while ER-Force has received 1. However, it doesn’t make a difference for ER-Force as they are currently playing with only 4 robots. The allowed number is 10.
01:35 There is actually some flow in the game, even though it gets interrupted every 5 seconds when the ball goes out of bounds.
01:08 Another invalid goal. At least the ball placements are now being skipped, making the game more fluid.
00:14 The ball is actually in the opponent’s half, and there are some interesting exchanges, but then the game finally reaches halftime. The most entertaining part of this game so far is the referee’s constant “Continue” when the ball goes out of bounds.
00:00 The first half already shows that there is still a LOT of room for improvement for our robots. Often, they accidentally collide with the ball, most likely due to poor control: while our AI sends reasonable movement commands to the robot, it executes them incorrectly. As a result, the robot deviates from its intended path and crashes or collides with the ball.

Second Half

05:00 The second half begins, with ER-Force now on the other half of the field with 4 robots, just like Immortals. The few robots are due to mechanical and electronic problems: battery cages breaking, motor cables designed too short and disconnecting on their own, motor boards failing.
04:46 And there are vision problems again, causing the game to be paused once more.
02:43 Some interesting game situations near our goal and a relatively uninterrupted game. But everything has an end, and the game is stopped again, much to the referee’s irritation, who doesn’t know what’s happening anymore.
02:43 Vision problems… but that’s how it goes in the first game of the tournament.
00:11 Unfortunately, the author had to briefly attend a team leader meeting, but probably nothing exciting happened anyway.
00:11 There seems to be a penalty shot. Currently, we are also at risk of winning 10-0 because Immortals has almost no robots left. If a team is unable to have at least one robot, they must give up, and the game ends 10-0 in favor of the opposing team.
00:00 With an attempted attack on the live blog author by the remaining robot of Immortals (the ball was shot out of bounds), the game ends after a fast-paced one and a half hours with a draw. Overall, there were constant hardware and control problems, which will hopefully be fixed by the next ER-Force game at 2:00 PM.

What can we say: new hardware. No one expected us to play like Ronaldo or Messi in our first game. Let’s hope that throughout the tournamentwe can regain our previous performance and deliver some exciting matches. Our team’s next game is ER-Force vs. KIKS at 2:00 PM.

RoboCup: Test Match ER-Force vs. Thunderbots

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Before the actual tournament matches can begin tomorrow, we have another setup day today, during which teams can build and test their robots. Traditionally, these setup days are also used for playing friendly matches against other teams, and we have scheduled a friendly match with our long-time friends UBC Thunderbots (Vancouver, Canada) for 2:30 PM.

UBC Thunderbots is a Division B team that has existed for many years and has achieved numerous successes, including first place in Division B at RoboCup 2019 in Sydney, Australia. Our team has always had a close friendship with the Thunderbots, which is why we always try to spend time with them at RoboCup events.

Currently, the robots are still being set up on the field, and preparations are in full swing. Both teams are playing with new robots, ER-Force with 6 and Thunderbots with 5. And finally, it’s time to start. However, it’s not an exciting game: Our robots are suffering from significant firmware and control problems. Additionally, our tachometers are vibrating, resulting in poor measurement data.

All in all, not much happens in the game; our robots mostly stay in our own half of the field, and the game ends in a 0-0 draw. Nevertheless, the game serves its purpose: All the problems that occurred during the game can now be fixed in the hope that tomorrow, when it counts.

There was a small incident at the end: Apparently, one of our chargers was accidentally set to the wrong battery type, resulting in a battery being charged to 4.8V cell voltage, which is very dangerous. The battery was very warm and practically round afterwards. However, together with the league organizers, our team, and the security personnel, we managed to defuse the situation: The battery was put into a LiPo bag, which was placed in a metal cooking pot, and then taken out of the hall onto a free asphalt surface for monitoring from a distance. Finally, the battery was disposed of by firefighters.

All in all, we were fortunate in this case, but such incidents should not happen again. We can conclude that having multiple battery chargers simultaneously is not advantageous, as mistakes can occur more easily. We will likely invest in purchasing additional battery chargers to ensure that we only have one model in the future.

RoboCup: First Setup Day

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Today is the day: we finally get to enter the hall. Accordingly, we set off early to catch the tram. The destination: Parc des Exposition. As we enter the tram, we are pleasantly surprised to see that RoboCup is actually advertising this year, a novelty! The RoboCup vibe spreads instantly, and everyone hopes that this time there might even be spectators!

But one thing at a time: first, we need to reach our destination and get inside the hall. Due to the political circumstances, we have to undergo a bag check, but apart from that, there are no further incidents, allowing our feet to touch the hallowed ground.

After unloading all our robots and equipment, we also try to pick up the event shirts. However, we quickly realize that it’s not as easy as it seems, as the hoodies and T-shirts can be customized this year. The creativity of our members knows no bounds, and we now have an official traffic light trio.

Freshly equipped with T-shirts and hoodies, we immediately dive into the important tasks: cutting out colored papers for the top of our covers (for the why, see this explanation), finalizing and setting aside the robots.

And just like that, it’s already noon, and it’s time to have lunch with our longtime friends UBC Thunderbots (Vancouver, Kanada). With the beautiful weather, there are plenty of options, as food trucks park outside the hall especially for RoboCup.

After lunch, we continue testing, and in the evening, we even get to test on the real playing field. Here, we notice that our new radio system, sponsored by Gerhard Schubert and HBC Radiomatic, runs smoothly, seamlessly, and without any signal interruptions, much to our delight. Our old radio system was quite unreliable, and we faced massive signal dropouts in almost every game.

However, there seem to be some firmware issues. Sometimes, when the robot changes its frequency (the new radio system is based on frequency hopping), the radio completely fails for the robot. But we are optimistic that we can fix this bug in our firmware.

And so, an action-packed first setup day slowly comes to an end for us. Unfortunately, due to the current political events, the last tram already departs at 6:45 PM, forcing many teams to leave the hall early. Although this does not affect us as our hotel is within walking distance, it is certainly disappointing for the other teams. We sincerely hope that the situation will improve in the coming days and that all teams will have equal opportunities to test their hardware in practice.