[robocup-humanoid] V-HSC Newsletter 10

[Ludovic Hofer]

Dear Humanoid Teams,

This is the tenth Humanoid league newsletter summarizing the following
updates since last week:

- Mock competition
- Server specification update
- Model verification tool
- Upcoming dates

Mock competition
================

A total of 10 teams registered for the mock-competition (9 Kid and 1
Adult). The schedule of this event is now available on
<https://humanoid.robocup.org/mock-comp/>.

Each of the teams that registered will play at least 2 round robin
games, 1 penalty shoot-out and 1 knock-out game.

All participating teams need to make sure to read the page to get all
the information on the event. Teams that did not register will still
have the occasion to watch the games streamed live on our twitch
account: https://www.twitch.tv/robocuphumanoidleague

Server specification update
===========================

The document describing the server specification has been updated and
you can access latest version at
<https://cdn.robocup.org/hl/wp/2021/05/v-hsc_server_specification_v1.0.pdf>.

This version includes several modification including:

- Increase of the size allowed for docker images to 10 GB
- Limit of the total size of all docker images provided by a team to 40 GB
- Detailed information on how to communicate between robots of the same team
  using the provided UDP-server
- Detailed information on providing a credentials.json file to receive
private log data on a FTP server or S3 instance.

Note that the implementation of the UDP-server that will allow teams to
communicate between robot VMs and receive GameController updates will be
provided on May 31st.

Model verification tool
=======================

The semi-automated model verification tool will be published on Monday
31st, simultaneously with the feedback on the second round of model
submissions. It contains a tool producing a pdf report allowing you to
check by yourself most of the elements that are critical for the
competition and will make fixing the robot model files easier.

We would like to highlight that we have seen that following all the
specification is difficult and we will try our best to be available
until June 3rd to help you fix your models. The discord channel
#robot-mode-questions has been created to allow you to get support more
easily. If you contact us there, someone from the TC will get back to
you by DM.

Upcoming dates
==============

- May 31st:
  - Feedback is provided to teams on the 2nd robot model submission
  - Semi-automated tool for model validation is published
  - AutoReferee will launch a UDP-server handling message transfer
between robot VM instances and the GameController and robot VM instances.
- June 4th-6th: Mock-competition
- June 7th: Team registration for the RoboCup 2021 event closes
- June 11th: Final submission of the robot models for teams that have
not passed the second robot model submission.

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

Cheers,

Ludovic (for the Humanoid League Organizing Committee)