After two years the moment is finally there, we can compete again and defend our world title of 2019! It is exciting to be at RoboCup again and to find out what kind of progression other teams have made over the last years. This Sunday the whole team came together in Bangkok and had a nice catch up at a restaurant in the neighborhood of the hotel. This year's team is a combination of members who are new to the RoboCup and members who have already been participating for years. Therefore it was nice to meet up with each other, share experiences and getting to know each other better. We are now ready to start the competition!

Tournament schedule

Monday and today are reserved for setup. We have to prepare everything we can before the real competition starts, because during the games we cannot communicate anymore with our robots. Wednesday to Friday are filled with matches and challenges. On Saturday the 16th of July we can hopefully participate in the Finals!
The detailed match schedule and results of both our soccer robots and our service robot can be easily found on our website.

Follow us live!

This year we will live stream the matches on our YouTube channel. If you are not able to watch live, you can always watch the live stream back or look at the match recaps. 
Furthermore, we will post interesting news and updates on our website and on all our social media channels, so you do not have to miss a thing!

Soccer robots (MSL)

The focus of MSL is on strategy. We want to be able to switch strategies based on the play of our opponents. Think, for example, of countering when the opponent plays very offensive, or setting up a specific attack via either the right or the left side. The challenge is to pick the right strategy at the right moments.
Another development is our "human dribble". The robots are not allowed to carry the ball for more than three meters. The human dribble is a solution since the robot pushes the ball a bit forward and picks it up again, just like a soccer player would. With this move it is important that it is timed and executed perfectly, because a human dribble at the wrong moment could lead to the loss of the ball.

Service robots (@Home)

The main task that @Home is working on is robustness: we have to make sure that a challenge works every time, no matter what happens. Service robot HERO will have to perform several challenges, such as taking out the garbage, cleaning up and serving drinks. The arena is different every tournament, so it is important that the robot knows its way through the rooms and that it can recognize the right objects and people. Therefore, the robot has to be able to deal with a lot of changes and uncertainties in the environment. There are only a few chances to score points, so the software should work flawlessly in order to win.
Furthermore, our @Home team has two brand new members this year! We are very happy to welcome them and this tournament is a great way to learn our team, our robot and our software.

Thanks to all our sponsors

With less demonstrations and no tournaments for a long time we could not expose our sponsors as much as we would have liked to in the past years. Therefore, an extra thank you is definitely in order for our partners, new and old, who supported us during the COVID-years. Without them it would have been impossible to develop our robots further and to be at this tournament.