[robocup-small] Rule changes for 2005

[Antoine W. Campagna]

Here at Laval University, we have discussed the proposed changes and here
are our opinions:

>
> Change 1:
>
> The dribbling distance will be set at 500mm for both active and passive
> dribblers.

We agree with this change. We think that teams that have a better
dribbler system are getting an important advantage and since only a few
teams have such good dribbling system, the competition is less fair.

>
> Change 2:
>
> For all restarts where the ball has gone out of bounds and the rules
> state the ball is too be placed ON a boundary line or within 10cm of a
> boundary line, the ball will be instead moved towards the middle of the
> field to an imaginary line that is 10cm any of the boundary lines that
> the ball is within the 10cm wall. Needs rewording but I think it makes
> sense.

We agree with this change. This could reduce the potential of
unsuccessful restart.

>
> Change 3:
>
> The referee box will send a neutral restart command 10 seconds after all
> restarts.

We agree with this change. This year, our team will be compliant with the
referee box system and this seems like a good idea.

>
> Change 4:
>
> No more bluetooth is allowed in the small-size league, and all other RF
> decisions will be left to the OC based on local conditions.
>

Once again, we agree with this change. Many of us have worked a lot on
making a wireless communication system from scratch and we think it is
unfair that some teams can use a system like Bluetooth.

> Change 5:
>
> Corner kicks will follow with change 3.

This is logical.

>
> Change 6:
>
> The EC/OC/TC will decide upon ALL yellows, blues, greens, cyans, and
> pinks allowed to be used by robots before the competition and will make
> enough of these colors available at the competition for each team to
> field 6 robots.

We have discussed much on this change but were agree with it. This means
that we will need to recalibrate our vision system completely but it is
worth the trouble. We have experienced problems in the past where other
teams used colors that were too pale or with a wrong hue and this caused
our vision system not to detect them. This change would eliminate this
problem. Although, we need to be assured that the colors would be given
to us in advance (many hours) so that each team can calibrate their
vision system.

>
> Change 7:
>
> We will have 6 robots per team
>

We don’t agree with this. It is already hard to keep five robots in good
shape and to upgrade them with our limited resources. We aren’t even
sure we are going to have five completely operational robots in time for
the month of May. Letting teams that have a big research budget have six
robots give them a big advantage against teams like us that do not
receive research resources.

> Change 8:
>
> The time of game will include 12 minute halfs, 5 minute half time
> breaks, each team retains its color for the duration of the match and
> colors are decided along with the referee 1 hour before the match.

This seems ok.

>
> Change 9:
>
> There will be no chip kicks allowed during any restart. Chip kicks (of
> any height) will be allowed during all other situations.

We agree with this change. I don’t think we have seen anything offending
with chip kicks during restart but preventing them is a good idea.

>
> Sean Verret
> TC Chair

Antoine Wells Campagna
Team RobocupLaval
Laval University
Québec, Québec, Canada