[robocup-small] RoboCup 2018 Changes

Fri Nov 17 02:26:40 EST 2017

Hi Christian,

I have a couple questions and comments about the announcement.

> When submitting the qualification material, the team also chooses a
> preferred division including a short rationale. The OC will have the
> final word. We are aiming at around 12 teams per division.

Inevitably, there will be people who requested division A placed into
division B and vice versa. What can a team who thinks they are in the
wrong division do? Is a division B team who is placed in division A
expected to create additional robots (and make software adjustments)
before competition? Knowing what division you're in by qualification
time seems quite late considering the major differences between the two
leagues. 

I'm a bit concerned that some teams with interesting innovations but
lack of resources might be placed in the B division, preventing them
from being tested on the division A teams. I don't anticipate it being a
large problem though.

> The current plan is to double the size of the field (to 9x12m) while
> increasing the width of the goal by 20 percent (to 1.20m). The defense
> area will also be increased by 20 percent in each dimension compared
> to the smaller field.

Is the expected timeline for this in RoboCup 2018? I'd assume this will
be needed with the increase in number of robots.

> The bar above the goal will be removed to provide better vision in
> the goal.

Finally! 

> If two teams want to collaborate and appear and participate as one,
> they will now be able to register as a joint team.

What is the incentive for teams to do this? Is this option available to
both divisions? What would be the difference between a joint team and
two teams building a single fleet of robots and software together? What
proportion of robots would need to come from either team, and do they
need to be substantially different? Can a joint team compete separately
and together as they wish, or do they have to be 'joint' for all of
their games? How will qualification work for joint teams (do both teams
submit together, what happens if one team does not qualify, etc)? Will
joint teams have the same restriction on goal scoring as in the
technical challenges? If a joint team got an award, would the award go
to both the constituent teams?

Overall, I think that these changes seem reasonable and are a good step
forward. I'm interested in knowing what others think about these changes
as well.

Thanks,
-Jay

Christian Lobmeier <pardinensis at gmail.com> writes:

> Hey everyone,
>
> The SSL is in a challenging state right now. Especially in comparison to other leagues, the SSL suffers from a distinct lack of innovation and progress. The technical challenges are mostly ignored, the mixed team challenge has been an absolute
> catastrophe and even the competition games looked similar to 5 years ago.
>
> If we want to be able to contribute something to the oft-cited goal of 2050, we need changes, big changes. And we need to start to make these changes now. So without further ado, lets get right down to business.
>
> 1 Divisions
>
> Starting in 2018, the Small Size League will be divided into two divisions with separate tournaments: Division A and division B. Division A is aimed at advanced teams whereas new and/or less competitive teams can play in division B. Each team will only
> play in one of those two divisions. When submitting the qualification material, the team also chooses a preferred division including a short rationale. The OC will have the final word. We are aiming at around 12 teams per division.
>
> There are multiple benefits of having two divisions.
>
> * The SSL has a rather high entry barrier. Our goal is to further advance the league while keeping the entry barrier at a reasonable level. With splitting the league, we can challenge seasoned teams while still being attractive for newcomers. The
>  qualification criteria for the division B can even be lowered a bit without hurting the competition.
>
> * Feedback from this year’s RoboCup has shown that it is very important for teams to face off against opponents of similar skill. Dividing the league into two divisions rids a lot of the one sided games in exchange for more interesting match-ups.
>
> 1 Increased number of robots
>
> This change applies to division A only. The intermediate-term goal of the SSL is to be the first league to play 11v11 with actual robots (discounting the simulation leagues). To achieve this goal, division A will play with 8 robots per team by 2018 and with
> 11 robots by 2019 or 2020.
>
> 1 Increased field size
>
> This change applies to division A only. To provide enough space for 8 (and later on 11) robots, the field size will be increased. There are no final decisions regarding the concrete dimensions, mostly because we don’t know yet how much space the SSL is
> allowed to allocate. The current plan is to double the size of the field (to 9x12m) while increasing the width of the goal by 20 percent (to 1.20m). The defense area will also be increased by 20 percent in each dimension compared to the smaller field.
> Division B will still use a 6x9m field.
>
> 1 Rectangular defense area
>
> This change applies to both divisions. Speaking of the defense area, it is time to introduce some changes there. Every single team uses some sort of defenders that always move along the defense area. It is obviously a very effective defense strategy and
> rather easy to implement. To make the defense more interesting, the shape of the defense area will be changed to a rectangle (2.40x1.20m for the large field, 2.00x1.00m for the small field). The rules regarding the defense area will stay the same. This
> means that attackers and defenders are still allowed to move through the defense area as long as they don’t touch the ball.
>
> 1 Reduced ball speed
>
> This change applies to both divisions. Even though the field increases quite a bit for division A, the maximum allowed ball speed will be reduced from 8m/s to 6.5m/s.
>
> Currently, it is very common to score goals from large distance, even against strong teams. The reason is that the ball is fast enough to make it through a hole in the defense without the defenders being able to react in time. This is not a bad thing by
> itself, the defense should just anticipate passes and future attack maneuvers. However, the offense is currently very one-dimensional. It all boils down to finding or forcing a hole in the defense and exploiting it. There is only little advantage gained by
> being able to bring the ball towards the opponent goal without losing possession or getting marked. By reducing the maximum ball speed, long distance shots are less likely to succeed resulting in a stronger focus on positional play.
>
> The signature high pace of our league will not be affected by this change. First, the viewer will most likely not even notice the difference in shoot speed and second, the high pace is not affected by the speed of the robots or the speed of the ball, but of
> the frequency of actions (e.g. passes, goal shots).
>
> 1 Excellence Award
>
> The RoboCup unites two very different ideas: research in robotics and a soccer competition. While it usually synergizes quite well, there are some conflicts when it comes to the actual goals and motivations. The goals of the RoboCup is to promote
> research and innovation and advance the field of robotics as a whole. A major goal of the teams is to win the competition. The problem is that investing time into research does not necessarily improve the results in the RoboCup competition, especially if
> the new ideas don’t work out as intended. Instead, the most effective way to succeed is to only make small, incremental changes and use tested and trusted technologies. Thankfully, a lot of teams do actual research and try out new technologies. To
> honor that, we will introduce the Excellence Award.
>
> The Excellence Award is a judged award given to teams that show a lot of overall skill and dedication to the long-term goals of the RoboCup. The criteria include:
>
> * Performance in competition games
>
> * Performance in Technical Challenges
>
> * Sportsmanship
>
> * Research Contributions
>
> * Innovation
>
> This Excellence Award will be the most important award given out to SSL teams on the RoboCup. More information regarding awards will be released in spring.
>
> 1 Qualification process
>
> Obviously, the (E)TDP is a central part of the qualification and is used to determine whether a team is able to participate or not. However, in 2017 the (E)TDPs and their reviews have been ignored for the qualification results. This won’t happen next year.
> Each team is required to submit a (E)TDP that follows the given guidelines. If the paper lacks quality, the team will only be conditionally qualified and has the chance to incorporate the feedback into the paper. If the second version does not improve
> significantly, the team will not be qualified for the RoboCup.
>
> Since the RoboCup is in June, the whole qualification process will start earlier this year:
>
> * TDP Submission Deadline: January 16, 2018
>
> * TDP Peer Review Deadline: February 2, 2018
>
> 1 Additional changes
>
> The following rule changes will be made this year, the points below are a summary of the changes and may differ slightly from the final text in the rules.
>
> * Only linear shots can be used to score a goal. If the ball height exceeds the robot height between the last contact of an attacker and the crossing of the goal line, the goal will not be scored.
>
> * Automatic ball placement becomes mandatory for division A.
>
> * The collision rule will be reworked. If two robots collide with a relative speed of more than 1.5m/s, the faster robot committed a foul.
>
> * The bar above the goal will be removed to provide better vision in the goal.
>
> * If two teams want to collaborate and appear and participate as one, they will now be able to register as a joint team.
>
> We are aware that these changes mean a lot of work for everyone, but we think that they are necessary to improve our league as a whole. If you have any criticism, good or bad, or if some points are not clear to you, don't hesitate to write us a mail.
> Even though these changes are the result of months of discussion, nothing is written in stone, yet.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Christian Lobmeier
>
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