[robocup-humanoid] RoboCup 2021: Humanoid League Newsletter #1

[Ludovic Hofer]

Dear all,

After the successful V-RoHOW event in the end of June, we come back to 
you with a few updates for RoboCup 2021 in Bordeaux.

The topics of this newsletter are the following:

 1. Qualification status for RoboCup 2021

 2. Discussion period for evolution of the roadmap and the rules

 3. Active league development projects

 4. Publication of the team's 2020 software descriptiondetails

 5. Call for interest for new OC members


Thank you all for reading it,
Ludovic Hofer (on behalf of the TC)

1) Qualification status for RoboCup 2021
-------------------------------------------------

The RoboCup Trustees decided that *all teams who were qualified for 
RoboCup 2020 are automatically qualified for RoboCup 2021*.
Since the number of teams qualified for RoboCup 2020 is close to the 
maximum number that can play a tournament given the expected number of 
fieldsin Bordeaux, we are still not sure wheter new teams can be 
accepted forRoboCup 2021.In order to clarify the situation and help the 
organization of RoboCup 2021, we require all team leaders to inform the 
Technical Committee of whether they will participate to RoboCup 2021 or 
not, given that there are no travel restrictions anymore. The team 
leaders who were qualified for RoboCup 2020 will receive a separate 
e-mail with detailed information in the coming days.

2) Discussion period for evolution of the roadmap and the rules
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are a few discussionsand votes to have for both short-term changes 
with respect to the rules and adjusting some elements of the roadmap.
Some of those topics have already been opened on the forum. I also added 
some discussion topics on the forum for the evolution of the rules and 
the roadmap based on the V-RoHOW discussions, feel free to react or to 
open new ones before we officially communicate about it with the league 
to try to have more discussions.

The current open topics are the following:

  * Heightlimits for KidSize and
    AdultSize(https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/discussion-adjusting-height-limits-between-kid-and-adult/440)

  * Extending the duration of final
    games?(https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/discussion-extend-duration-of-final-games/439)

  * Process for going
    outdoor?(https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/discussion-going-outdoor/442)

  * Adding corner
    flags(https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/discussion-corner-flags-and-markings/443)

  * Evolution of technical
    challenges(https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/discussion-evolution-of-technical-challenges/444)

  * Evolution of the goal Kick from moving
    ball(https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/discussion-long-term-evolution-of-goal-kick-from-moving-ball/441)

  * Futureof push recovery (added in
    January)(https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/discussion-future-of-push-recovery-challenge/396)


If there are other ideas you want to see implemented or if you want to 
contribute to the roadmap, feel free to open new topics.

3) Active league development projects
----------------------------------------------

Long-term evolution of the league requires support from the whole league 
which can strongly help to come up with shared tools and more data 
openly accessible.

Three projects have been proposed on the forum:

  * Match visualization and
    analysis(https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/project-match-visualization-and-analysis/445)

  * GameController 3.0
    (https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/project-new-game-controller/446)

  * Network communication
    manager(https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/project-network-communication-manager/447)


If you feel interested and want to help the community by contributing to 
tools, do not hesitate to answer on the forum. Some of these projects 
are also suitable for student projects or thesis work. If you have other 
ideas and want to get some help for them, feel free to add them on the 
forum as well.

4) Publication of submission details
----------------------------------------------

For the 2020 qualification process, each team was asked to provide a 
detailed description of their software in the categories walking, 
vision, localization and behavior. The software descriptions provided 
and the additional files uploaded by the teams are now accessible on the 
website of the humanoid league: 
https://humanoid.robocup.org/hl-2020/humanoid-soccer-competition/teams/

During the V-RoHOW, some teames suggested to expand the categories for 
the submission process, potentially making some of them optional for 
teams to fill out. If you have further thoughts on this and / or what 
categories to add, please let us know in the forum.

5) Call for interest for new Organizational Committeemembers
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The RoboCup Federation has proposed that additional members could be 
recruited to the OC to help with preparation of RoboCup 2021 which might 
be more tense with the presence of COVID-19.If you are interested, 
please send an e-mail to the Technical Committee.