[robocup-nao] SPL Rules, especially Pushing

[Michael Quinlan]

Hi Stefan,
  This exact discussion is also happening on the TC, as it was evident 
to all that the German and US opens were refereed differently. I think 
the true answer lies somewhere in the middle.

  In hindsight we probably allowed a little too much pushing at the US 
Open, in particular some pushing in the back that should have been 
called. However, I agree that we should not be pre-empting pushing call. 
One key difference was at the US Open, if it was not clear who was 
pushing and the contact was reasonably light then we let both robots 
stay on the field even if they both eventually fell over, I prefer this 
then penalising both robots.

   We are trying to formailse the interpretation of the rules now, so we 
are open to suggestions (like this email) on the direction we should go. 
I've also thought about putting together a video on different pushing 
scenarios,  and how they should be called, it may be easier to get 
league-wide consistent interpretation from a video then from text.

Michael

Stefan Czarnetzki wrote:
> Hi everyone!
>
> After the German Open and the US Open we all got a good impression what 
> games will look like this year in Graz, and I think it's safe to say 
> that there won't be any finals or semifinals without Naos touching the 
> ball or doing anything useful at all. Nice progress!   :)
>
> Anyway, another point that was interesting to see and to compare was the 
> application of the rules to the games. On the German Open the rules were 
> applied to the word and the referees were interfering a lot, especially 
> concerning the pushing rule; which was absolutely correct and fair. 
> Besides this, referees were still very worried about the robots and were 
> running onto the field in lots of situations when a robot were in danger 
> to fall over.
>
> On the US Open the referees seemed to stay away from the carpet most of 
> the times and robots were removed only in some rare situations. The 
> games therefore looked a bit more like Aibo games, just in slow motion. 
> If robots were close together and touching every once in a while, they 
> were left alone. If a robot fell down, it was allowed to stand up on its 
> own without someone running to help. The Nao that was still standing had 
> its chance to kick during that time without interference.
> At least this is my impression from the videos, I haven't been on site 
> myself.
>
> We had intended to discuss the rules again after the big Opens and I 
> would like to hear other thoughts, especially about the pushing rule.
>
> In my opinion the Naos are robust enough to survive falling down several 
> times (as Aldebaran said), and with nice looking games without too many 
> interventions in mind, I vote to soften the pushing rule.
> I acknowledge that it would be much more sophisticated soccer playing if 
> all robots would smoothly evade each other without collisions (which I 
> haven't seen so far from any team), but I prefer the US Open style 
> interpretation to the German Open one, where robots were taken out when 
> heading straight for the ball but failing to avoid others correctly.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Stefan
>
>