[robocup-small] SSL 2009 Rules Schedule and Announcements

[Stefan Zickler]

Dear Small-Size League members,

it is time to discuss rule changes for RoboCup 2009. As in the
previous year, the TC has prepared a schedule to do so in an orderly
fashion:

Until September 21st: Community Discussion about Major Rule Changes
------------------------------------
The SSL community is asked to propose and discuss major rule changes
for RoboCup 2009 via the mailing list. "major" encompasses everything
that affects the construction or number of SSL robots or the
environment.
Please note that this year we have two particular major developments
that we would like to announce:

(1) Field Size
The RoboCup Federation has decided to unify the field size of SSL,
humanoid, and SPL (but not MSL) starting 2009. Note that (to my latest
knowledge) this unification is currently only regarding field size,
not necessarily the layout of field markings and certainly not the
size or design of the goals. As the small size league with its global
vision system has the most stringent field size constraints out of
these leagues, it will also be one of the most significant voices in
determining the new standard field size. As we have already increased
the field size significantly for 2008 and as many teams are near the
limit of optical resolution and wide angle focal lengths, the SSL TC
aims to leave the current dimensions untouched and will try to have
them (or a slightly modified version) become the new RoboCup standard.

(2) Development of Shared Vision System, First Optional Experimental
Testing of Software in 2009 (tentative)
One of the SSL roadmap goals for the coming years is to switch to a
shared vision system that all teams can use. The idea is to have a
single vision processing computer per field that all teams can connect
to, very similar to the current refbox system. This also means that
eventually there will be no more need to mount more than two cameras
per field. The goal of these efforts are to eliminate a lot of
mounting and calibration time, and at the same time to allow weaker
teams to focus on A.I. and hardware development, rather than trying to
re-solve the vision problem. Furthermore, such a system will make it
easier to scale up to even larger fields (with 4 cameras for example)
in future years.

However, for RoboCup 2009 vision will remain unchanged for teams. Each
team should continue their own efforts in developing vision software,
and each team will be required to bring their own vision hardware as
usual. Nevertheless, we are aiming to release a test version of a
shared vision software well before RoboCup 2009 which teams can then
adapt and try to use with their own vision hardware. Please note again
that for 2009, use of this software would be completely voluntary, and
furthermore, at each team's own risk!

The TC is currently in the process of creating a committee to develop
the shared vision system and to discuss its technical details. It is
intended that this system will be released as open source and be
hosted as a collaborative project, similar to the refbox. Community
feedback or general opinions about the idea of the shared vision
system are welcome. The TC will keep the community updated about the
development of this system.

Until October 12th: TC Discussion about Major Changes
------------------------------------
The TC will discuss and decide on the major changes for 2009,
considering the feedback from the SSL community.

October 13th: Announcement of Major Changes
------------------------------------
The TC announces all major rule changes for 2009. After this date,
these issues are considered final.

Until October 25th: Community Discussion about Minor Rule Changes
------------------------------------
The SSL community is asked to propose and discuss all other rule
changes for 2009.

Until November 7th: TC Discussion about Minor Changes
------------------------------------
The TC will discuss and decide on the rules for 2009, considering the
feedback from the SSL community.

November 8th: TC Announcement of 2009 Finalized Rules
------------------------------------

We are looking forward to an interesting discussion!

Best regards,

Stefan
On behalf of the Small Size TC 2009