[robocup-small] Ideas for 2007 Rules

Wed Oct 18 13:20:40 EDT 2006

Hi list...

As many people probably know, I was referee for a few games in Bremen.
I am worried that that difficult job of the referee will become harder.

These are my personal comments and ideas.
I say again, these are my ideas for discussion!

James Bruce wrote:
> - Move to a partially automatic ethernet-based referee box
>
>    I liked the demonstration by Plasma-Z on semi-automated refereeing.
>    To make such a system practical, we would need to move to an
>    ethernet-based referee box.  This has some other advantages: (1) no
>    more need for split-serial cables, and finding long ethernet cables
>    is much easier. (2) it makes it easier to verify teams are connected
>    to the referee using a "heartbeat" message. (3) it is much easier to
>    find computers with two ethernet ports now compared to an extra
>    serial port. (4) if the long term plan is to move to a shared vision
>    system, we will need to develop a shared ethernet-based
>    communications system anyway.
>   
(2) - the rules should state that loosing connection at mid game for 
software reasons is
the responsibility of the team
>    The challenge, of course, is transitioning to a new system, and
>    helping teams to correctly set up separate ethernet networks on
>    their computers (we do not want one shared system, as it opens up
>    all sorts of problems with communication interference).
>
>    We could try to develop an ethernet+serial referee box during the
>    transition period.  I would be willing to help out in that effort.
>   
Will this generate even more problems ? Isn't it preferable to have a 
single sane standard ?
Alternative approach: next year will be serial, the following year will 
be Ethernet.
> - Decrease timeout time to 5 minutes
>
>    Motivation: keep the games moving, and get them back under an hour.
>    Teams need to be ready for games.
>   
This rule change will provide at most 5 minutes less delay.
Are these 5 minutes per game the cause of the delays in the schedule ?
> - Are chip kicks now too powerful for the goalie?
>
>    Proposal: allow a second defender to enter the defense area for a
>    limited time (3 seconds perhaps?)
>   
The referees may have a difficult time implementing this rule.
>    Alternate Proposal: split the defense area into a small "no two
>    defenders" area, and a larger "no goalie touching" area.  This will
>    allow defenses a better chance of blocking while still preventing
>    walls across the entire goal.
>   
I think this makes sense.
> (...)
> - Teams must prove kickers are legal
> (...)
> At the last competition the rules committee
>    ended up having to show kickers were illegal, when really the burden
>    should be on the teams.
>   
Probably there should be a pre-competition time where people send a very 
short tech brief that proves
that their robots follow all the rules.
... and what happens if a tech brief is inconclusive or the brief is 
found not to comply with the rules ???

> - General kick speed limitation?
>    Maybe we should limit kicks to some reasonable upper limit, such as
>    10 m/s (CMDragons was using 15 m/s for the last three games).  What
>    is needed however is some way of enforcing this.  I don't have any
>    good ideas on this, but maybe someone else does.
>   
My opinion: impossible to implement!
The sane alternative: change the ball (see below).
> - Increase team size to 6 robots
>    I think this might be the year to increase the number of robots, to
>    add more possibilities for passing, and to get closer to 11-vs-11 in
>    a manageable way.  Teams are scoring now, so we don't have the
>    situation of a few years ago with many 0-0 or 1-0 games.  However,
>    in order to prevent teams from stacking to defense too much, we
>    could *require* that at least one robot stay as a forward at all
>    times (i.e. a team must keep one robot on the offense side of the
>    field at all times).  This is kind of a reverse-offsides rule.
>   
Strong against.
Overpopulating the field will not benefit game play.
> ...
I have some additional thoughts for discussion.

(1) Ball change.
My favorite ball is the anti-stress ball.
My suggestion is to deregulate the ball and say that robots must play 
with any anti-stress ball of a given diameter and
a given color. If a sponsor was to be found :) , many balls could be 
produced and distributed as example for the first year.
Probably the balls would degrade and must be changed at the end of every 
day of competition
so these balls must come in really high quantities and must be 
inexpensive...
This rule introduces new challenges and probably there is the need for 
robot changes.
It should be discussed if this rule should be enforce the next year or 
only the following.
But it must be decided soon so everybody knows what to expect at robot 
design time.
One concern in favor of an urgent ball change is safety.
What would / will  happen if / when all teams have golf balls at 15m/s ???
(<<extra bad luck for hitting an eye of a kid...>>)

(2) Field change.
I would like to propose a (strange) new idea for discussion.
Let's place the goals on the other sides of the field, that is, place 
the goals on the larger sides of the field.
Maybe also consider a slower ball...
Likely consequences (that I can foresee):
- :( Somewhat different from real football
- :| Goalie to goalie shots are much more easier (new rules needed)
- :| Lateral out of fields are less frequent
- :| Corners and goal kicks are more frequent
- :| The goals are now in a region seen by 2 cameras (for my team, at 
least!)
- :) Side passes are much more dangerous - passes are more interesting ;)
- :) Powerful kickers become less interesting - passing is more 
interesting than power shots
- :) No global field size change - but will need new strategies
- :) Corner kicks become more dangerous
- :) Block defense is less effective

(3) Goals change.
The sides and backside of the goals should be made by net (like real 
football).
Example materials are nets made of flexible, thin, flexible black wire 
or metal net.
Both materials should be held up in order to allow for a robot to enter 
the goal area.
This would allow for the ball to stay inside the net on a goal in the 
event of a goal.

(4) Ref box improvement.
The referee box should have a better interface, for example on a 
keyboard or maybe an
USB numeric keypad. This would make the life of the assistant referee 
easier.

(5) Other comments: Offside
Offside rules makes the life of the referee a hell -- strong against...

(6) Other comments: Automated refereeing
It would be nice if an additional neutral camera would provide 
information for the referee -
the road to automated refereeing (?)

These are my thoughts, they open for discussion !!!

 Regards

    Armando Jorge Sousa, 5dpo team member (Portugal)

-- 
Armando J. M. Sousa  
FEUP - DEEC - ISR    
R.Dr.Roberto Frias, S/N
4200-465 Porto       
Tel:  +351 225 081 815
Fax:  +351 225 081 443
VoIP: +351 22 557 41 99
Personal web page:   http://www.fe.up.pt/~asousa
RoboSoccer web page: http://www.fe.up.pt/~robosoc