[robocup-legged] Qualified Legged RoboCup Teams 2006

[William Uther]

Hi all,

   There were MANY applicants this year for the legged league.   
Unfortunately there were only 24 places available (and we can't have  
more places - it is a very busy schedule as it is).  The committee  
had some difficult choices to make.

The list of qualified teams is:

Pre-qualified:

GermanTeam
NUbots
rUNSWift
CMDash
Jolly Pochie
UPenn
AustinVilla
WrightEagle
Cerberus
ARAIBO
MiPal
Hamburg Dog Bots
UChile1

Chosen by committee:

Asura
BabyTigers
Eagle Knights
Hellhounds
Impossibles
Northern Bites
Spelbots
SPQR
TeamChaos
TongJi
TWaves

Some insight for teams that were not selected:

All other things being equal:
   - Starting with the obvious, the committee preferred teams that  
demonstrated soccer ability.
   - The committee preferred teams that had made scientific  
contributions.
   - The committee preferred teams competing for the second time (you  
learn a LOT your first year and we'd like to give you the chance to  
use that knowledge in your second attempt).
   - The committee tended not to choose teams that hadn't improved  
for a number of years (i.e. 2nd year is easier to qualify, 3rd year  
is harder).
   - The committee preferred teams that had done their own work.   
This point requires some clarification, because an important part of  
science is building on the work of others.  Firstly, note the phrase  
"all other things being equal" above.  Secondly, the committee  
doesn't see much scientific interest in simply hand-tuning yet  
another soccer strategy on top of someone else's base code.  If you  
have a wonderful new AI behaviour algorithm, that's great (assuming  
you publish the general algorithm so it counts as a scientific  
contribution).  However, if you have a team of undergrads who hand- 
tune a soccer strategy and nothing else, that didn't carry much weight.

Teams who were not selected are encouraged to participate in the  
local competitions, to improve their code, and to apply again in  
future years.

Please direct any queries to: legged_tech at tzi.de

Be well,

Will          :-}

--
Dr William Uther                           National ICT Australia
Phone: +61 2 8306 0424               Computer Science and Engineering
Email: william.uther at nicta.com.au      University of New South Wales
Email: willu at cse.unsw.edu.au                  Sydney, Australia

Web: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~willu/   or  http://www.nicta.com.au/

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