[robocup-small] 2007 Rules

[James Bruce]

Dear SSL community,

The TC is pleased to announce the 2007 rules, which are available as PDF 
from the official small size site:
	http://small-size.informatik.uni-bremen.de/rules:main
The HTML versions are temporarily available at the following site until 
they can be uploaded to the official site:
	http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jbruce/SSL/
The changes closely tracked the feedback provided by teams, so hopefully 
no changes will come as a surprise.  The changes are summarized below, 
although teams are encouraged to review the full rules to understand all 
changes.

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BALL SPEED LIMITATION: Robots may not kick or otherwise propel the ball 
such that it exceeds 10m/s.  The penalty for exceeding this speed is an 
indirect free kick for the other team.

FIELD SIZE: The overall field size was increased by 100mm in each 
direction, while the margin on each side of the field was reduced to 
250mm.  This is a compromise increase which should allows sufficient 
room for teams to position for free kicks.  While this change is minor, 
and the TC realizes any such change in inconvenient, the TC believes 
this is a step toward a future where field size is specified within a 
range rather than an exactly specified.  This parallels FIFA and other 
RoboCup leagues such as Mid-Size.

700mm EXCLUSION FROM OPPONENT GOAL: Teams may not position robots within 
700mm of the center of the opponent's goal until the ball is in play. 
This was added to allow teams to set up a free kick defence without 
interference from the opposing team, particularly in the case of 
corner-kicks.

GOALS: The goal wall height has been increased to 160mm, and the goal 
bar will be at 155mm.  This should allow full height robots sufficient 
clearance.  However, robots must still pass the 150mm height restriction 
(discounting antennas, and pure local vision teams).  Goals will no 
longer be colored yellow or blue, and can contain foam for absorbing 
ball impacts.

(SEMI)-AUTONOMOUS REFEREES: Autonomous referee programs will be allowed 
if both teams agree to use them.  In addition, a Referee may request the 
use of a rules checking tool developed by any team in the event of a 
dispute (in particular in the case of the ball speed restriction), so 
long as the tool is operated by a neutral third party.  Teams are 
encouraged to develop autonomous refereeing and rules checking systems 
and to share them with the community, as such technologies are important 
to the future of the SSL.

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The TC would be happy to address questions or comments on this mailing 
list, or if required, in private on the TC mailing list 
(small-size-tc at tzi.de).  Thank you for your patience.

Best regards,
   The 2007 TC