[robocup-legged] Rule Clarifications/Changes

[William Uther]

Hi all,

   There are a small number of clarifications and minor changes to  
the rules agreed upon by the technical committee.  We're working on a  
revised draft of the rules, but I wanted to let people know asap.

Main rules:

Changes:
   - The gamecontroller automatically switches states from Ready to  
Set after 45 seconds.  We plan to make this official.  If you take  
too long automatically positioning then you will be out of position  
when the gamecontroller changes state to Set, and so will be manually  
positioned.  45 seconds seems to be a reasonable limit, but if this  
turns out to be a problem at the local opens, we may adjust that limit.

Clarifications:
   - If the ball goes out over the end line, and it is unclear which  
team was last to contact the ball, then the ball is replaced at the  
end of the throw-in line.  i.e. The phrase 'directly in front' used  
in the rules is to be interpreted as the closest legal point.
   - Under the current rules it is not possible to score by carrying  
the ball over the goal line.  If an attacking robot carries the ball  
over the goal line then the ball is considered to have gone out over  
then end line, and is re-placed at the intersection of the throw-in  
and half-way lines with no score being counted.  We wish to clarify  
that it is still possible to score own-goals if the goalie carries  
the ball over its own goal line.  You cannot use this rule as a  
defensive manoeuvre to clear the ball to the half-way line.

Challenge rules:

Passing Challenge:
   - The specification states that the robots cannot see the circles  
marked for the challenge, and so the robots must infer the circles'  
positions from the robots' initial placement.  We want to add some  
constraints on that initial placement.  The robots will be placed  
with their centre back button over the centre of the circle they are  
placed in.  They will be placed so that they can easily see at least  
two of the coloured landmarks (they may have to move their head, but  
not their bodies).

New Goal Challenge:
   - The specification of the new goals is changing slightly (as  
already proposed on this list).
     - The cross-bar on the new goals is to be raised so that the  
base of the cross-bar is 30cm from the field.
     - The diameter of the cross-bar is to be reduced to 5cm.  The  
new goal posts are to remain 10cm in diameter.
     - The style of the joint between the goal posts and the cross- 
bar is being deliberately left under-specified.  You can not rely on  
a specific style of joint.

If anyone has any questions on these clarifications, or any other  
rules, please ask.  New versions of the rules incorporating these  
changes and clarifications will be released soon.

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/

NICTA email Disclaimer:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~willu/NICTAEmailDisclaimer.html
UNSW email Disclaimer:
http://www.eng.unsw.edu.au/emaildis.htm