[robocup-humanoid] Rule Discussion at the Robot Soccer WS at the Humanoids 2007

[Oskar von Stryk]

Hi Michael,

Some of your rule suggestions from the workshop in Pittsburgh have not 
been discussed yet:

On Dec 3, 2007, N. Michael Mayer wrote:
<...>
> Suggestions for changes have been:
> 
> Obstacle avoidance:  Since this challenge is much easier than the other 
> technical challenges in KidSize it has been suggested to put more 
> (around 20) obstacle poles and let the robot walk a longer distance. The 
> pole sizes could be adjusted to the size of the marker poles  that is a 
> height of 60cm height, and as before 20cm diameter.

In 2007 the distance between the starting point of the KidSize robot
and the goal in the obstacle avoidance challenge was 2.25m.

In the current rule version it says that the obstacles are placed 
within the area between the penalty mark and the goal which is a distance 
of 1.80m. This setup is not easier than the setup in 2007.

There are also important practical reasons against 20 poles:

- Rearranging 20 poles costs a lot of time and additional assistant 
	referees. (The challenges are performed under time constraints.)

- Assuming the same number of teams as in 2007 we will have to
	perform the challenges on 3 fields in parallel (2 kid, 1 teen).
	This will require 60 obstacles poles plus replacement poles.
	I think it is not practical to handle that many poles.

	It will also be difficult to get that many poles.	
	In Atlanta the league organizers had asked for 3x6 = 18 poles
	but only had gotten 12 obstacle poles!

If the obstacle challenge should become more difficult we should 
rather reduce the minimum distance between poles in KidSize from 50 to 45cm
but not increase the number of poles.



> TeenSize footrace comeptition: instead of walking only one way it would 
> be good to change this to walk one way; turn around and walk back.

I am not in favor of this change because:

- There are already lots of requirements for turning ability for
	TeenSize robots in the other challenges and the dribble and kick 
	competition. No need to add a further one.

- It is useful to have the isolated sprint competition to encourage
	really fast (and stable) walking.
	Please remeber that straight 100m sprint is a 
	well-recognized olympic discipline for humans.

With best regards,
Oskar