Today was the first competition day of the RoboCup 2022 World Championship. Our soccer robots played their first matches in Round Robin 1 and service robot HERO performed several challenges in stage 1. The soccer robots dominated all the games they played, which gives us good hope for the rest of the tournament. @Home had some bad luck during some of the challenges, but managed to end the day with a great amount of points.

Technical Challenge MSL

Yesterday eve the Technical Challenge of the MSL happened where each team gives a demonstration and presentation of their technical innovations. Our team member Danny told everyone about the new platform, the swerve drive, which is intended to also be able to play soccer on grass and outside the field. Each team gives each other points based on innovation and complexity and Tech United got the most points from the teams and immediately won the first challenge!

Housekeeper Challenge @Home

The first part of the day was reserved for "housekeeper" challenges. During the whole morning teams take turns in doing one of the challenges in the house keeper category which include setting the table and taking out the garbage. Tech United decided to start with taking out the garbage, where we unfortunately did not win points. Where the challenge went flawless yesterday, today HERO seemed to get stage fright. He accidentally grabbed the trash bin instead of the trash bag.  Afterwards, it was chosen to set the table for breakfast. This challenge went quite successfully, because we were able to set all items on the table and we put the cornflakes in the bowl. Watch the video here!

Party Host Challenge @Home

In the afternoon it was time for the "party host" challenges. The party host challenge include tasks like serve drinks, recognize specific people or make a smoothie. We started with the "find my mates" challenge, where we had to go into a room and look around for guests. Subsequently, we had to show the host where his friends were. Later we did the receptionist challenge where HERO showed people where there was an empty seat, so they could sit down. Then he had to introduce them to the other guests in the room. Unfortunately, we had some difficulties with recognizing faces due to masks, but eventually both challenges went okay and we managed to score quite some points! The exact scores of the last challenge will be known tomorrow.

Tech United MSL - IRIS

The day started with a Robin Round match against IRIS, IRIS is a team from Indonesia that was founded in 2016. Tech United competed agains IRIS already several times in last years. During the first match today of IRIS, only two field players and one goalkeeper from IRIS could start. Where Tech United had the regular four field players and one goalkeeper. This resulted in a 15-0 for Tech United. The negative effects of the pandemic for the teams are large. Not playing any matches against other teams for two years, meet each other in person, help another team with their struggles and improvements and of course test new features against other teams. It is the main reason why there are only 6 teams registered (only 5 could eventually come, due to visa issues at one team). But Tech United is very happy to see the other teams again, to play against them and learn from from the other teams. 

Tech United MSL - ERSOW

Just before lunch it was time for the match against ERSOW. ERSOW is also a team form Indonesia, just a little younger that IRIS and founded in 2017. Both Tech United and ERSOW had some challenges. For Tech United there were some issues with the calibration of the robots, resulting in passes that were not given correctly and shots at the goal that where no shots but only a soft pass. The ERSOW robots were also not all present during this first round. All in all, the match ended with 8-0 for Tech United on the scoreboard. 

Tech United MSL - ASML Falcons

Tech United’s last match of day was against ASML Falcons. Here all teams where complete and the match started interesting with quite a lot of action, team play and shots at the goal. Nice intercepts were made, where the ball was taken off the other team. However, the defence on both sides was well. Therefore, the robots were not able to score a lot of goals, ending with 2-0 for Tech United. It was a promising Robin Round. The team and all the viewers at home are excited for the next matches!