[robocup-humanoid] V-HSC Newsletter 1

[Ludovic Hofer]

Dear Humanoid Teams,

This is the first Humanoid league newsletter. It covers recent progress
that has been made over the last weeks and news about the following topics:

- New communication pipeline
- Cyberbotics release
- Registration fees
- Workshops
- Updated documents
- Next updates

# New communication pipeline
============================
As presented on Monday, we will now interact with the league with the
following scheme.

- A Spotlight Video is released every Monday on the YouTube channel:
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZcpKwxbCt2acOmmAiG2u5A>. Please make
sure you subscribe to the channel if you want to receive notifications
when a new video is released.
- We are making 1 or 2 persons from the OC available to answer questions
on Discord, every Tuesday from 9:00 to 9:30am CET and 5:00 to 5:30pm CET
at <https://discord.gg/PvxJrUE>
- Every Thursday we will send a text version with the elements mentioned
in the spotlight and some comments on the questions asked during the
Discord sessions.

# Cyberbotics release
=====================
Cyberbotics has released a preliminary version of the world model which
is presented with some benchmarks information on the forum:
<https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/first-webots-package-for-the-virtual-hsc/481>

This model already allows to have two different setups, one for KidSize
and another for AdultSize. It features properly dimensioned field lines,
goals, nets and a number of Darwin robots to test the performance.

We can already announce that there will be the following changes for the
next version:
- Contact with the ground will change to obtain a more realistic effect
of artificial turf for walking.
- The ball will be updated to be more realistic in both visual aspect
and physical properties.
- Backlash will be introduced to model more accurately the kind of
problems that we are facing in the league.
- The background will slightly change for the next version in order to
make recognition of the field outline easier.

# Registration fees
===================

Registration fees for the virtual competition have now been announced by
the RCF:

- 100 USD for team registration (including one member)
- 50 USD for additional member (Faculty/Staff)
- 20 USD for additional member (Student)

More details can be found on the official website:
<https://2021.robocup.org/participants/registration-process-and-fees>

You can only register on the tournament website after you have received
the registration key from the Technical Committee. This key will be
provided to all teams who have submitted their material over the
Humanoid League submission website after April 12th.

# Workshops
===========

During the league workshop on March 9th we discussed the following topics:

1. Specifications for robot models and allowed sensors
2. Definition of the API for communication between the simulator and
robot controller software
3. Update of the rule book
4. Specifications for the server infrastructure

The content of the discussions have been used to update all the official
documents on the humanoid league website.

# Updated documents
===================

## Rules

The rule document has been uploaded and the updated versions are now
available on <https://humanoid.robocup.org/materials/rules/>, the
following topics are still under discussion on the forum:

- Forceful contact:
<https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/discussion-forceful-contact-and-direct-free-kicks-for-virtual-competition/468>
- Dropped ball: <https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/v-hsc-dropped-ball/485>
- Ball handling: <https://hl.forum.robocup.org/t/v-hsc-ball-handling/486>

The schedule for the next updates on the rules is the following:

- April 2nd: 3rd rule update
- April 16th: final version of the rules

## Robot models specification

The first version of the specifications for the robot models has been
uploaded on the official website:
<https://cdn.robocup.org/hl/wp/2021/03/v-hsc_model_specification.pdf>

This document already mentions the main constraints on the robot model.
It will be extended later to include advice on robot model creation and
guidelines for peer-reviewing.

An updated version is expected for March 29th.

## API Specification

A first draft of the specifications on how to interact with the
simulator is now available on the official website:
<https://cdn.robocup.org/hl/wp/2021/03/v-hsc_simulator_api.pdf>

The protobuf files associated with this protocol will be released later
and an updated version of this document is expected for March 29th.

# Next updates
==============

We are currently working on refining all the documents mentioned in this
newsletter and refining the specifications for the server infrastructure
that will host the competition.

We welcome all your questions and comments on the league forum and the
Discord channel.

Cheers,

Ludovic (for the Humanoid League Organizing Committee)


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