[robocup-humanoid] Rule Discussion for 2012

[Daniel Seifert]

Dear HL Teams,

The TC of the humanoid league has started preparation for the RoboCup 2012
competition. Currently, changes to the rules for RC 2012 are being discussed
following on from discussion started at the team leader meeting in Istanbul.

The summary of proposed rule changes is divided into three parts:

Part 1: rules already decided in Istanbul (in the team leader meeting)
Part 2: rules decided in principle where detailed wording of the rules
        is still under discussion.
Part 3: rules that are still undecided issues and other open issues.

Our goal is to finalize the rules by end of this year.

All teams should read the list of rules below and provide feedback on
current
discussions or make additional suggestions. Only in this way, the rules
will
be able to address all teams' concerns fairly. Please provide feedback via
the HL mailing list.

Deadline for suggestions is November 16, 2011.

Best regards,
Humanoid League Technical Committee


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1: Rules already decided in Istanbul
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Compass (magnetometer) allowed but only inside the robot
* Goal keeper can not score a goal directly from a throw-in. Ball must first
  touch at least one other player.
* Two different lenses may be used in a camera as long as there is a signi-
  ficant overlap in the coverage of the two lenses.
* modify game controller to count up (not down) and have the referee decide
  the end of game (allowing to make up for game stoppages / lost time and
  to finish current play)
* TeenSize
  * Decrease minimum height of teen size robots to 90 centimeters
  * ball for Teen Size: FIFA size 3, at least 50% orange
* AdultSize
  * AdultSize will use larger field (same as Teen Size)
  * ball for Adult Size: FIFA size 5, at least 50% orange


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2: Decided changes where the details need to be worked out
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

* robots should not have any parts sticking out, such as protective wires,
etc
* team markers should be large enough with a minimum size, and visible from
  all sides
* refine definition of arm length to fix a loop-hole in the rules, where
  a robot without a shoulder joint in the frontal plane can have extremely
  long under arms.
* only human-like motions are allowed for the robots
* increased penalty for teams that do not use the game controller
* Technical challenges:
  * Throw-In challenge modified to use an arbitrarily colored ball
  * Dribbling challenge modified to distribute poles over whole field and
    change robot starting point to opposite goal
  * Introduction of ball high-kicking challenge
  * Scoring of challenges must be adjusted, e.g. only the top 3 of the 4
    challenge event scores will be counted.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 3: Open issues
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

* have mandatory handles at a standardized place (cmp. Darwin OP)
* Referees are allowed touching and moving the robots, e.g. removing them
  from field (cmp. SPL)
* introducing 4vs4 games
* reduction of foot size to H²/32 in 2013 (as per appendix A)
* removing side-poles in 2012 or 2013