[robocup-small] RoboCup 2018 - Open Source Award Submission TIGERs Mannheim

[Nicolai Ommer]

Dear SSL-community,

as most of you should already know by now, we use to publish all our work
each year during or after each RoboCup since we first participated in 2011.
And we continue with this attitude, because we belief in the importance of
sharing knowledge to advance our league and the RoboCup.

Below, you will find a list of our publications and a list of the most
significant changes. The documentation or description is included within
the individual packages.


*Mechanics*
- Modified the curved front shape of the straight kicking plunger. This
significantly reduced the spread of kicked balls when they are not
perfectly at the center in front of the robot.
- Enlarged the infrared barrier PCBs on the sides of the dribbling device
to prevent the silicon rubbers of the linear damping mechanism to fall out
seldomly.
Release: https://tigers-mannheim.de/download/release2018/Mechanics-2018.zip

*Electronics*
- Usage of a new wireless module: Semtech SX1280
- Schematics and PCB layout of a tiny 34x18mm module with a single SX1280
module. Pin-compatible with most nRF24L01+ breakout boards on the market
(SX1280.pdf).
- Schematics and PCB layout of a completely new base station using one
SX1280 module and the SKY66112 front-end module for enhanced output power
and antenna switching. Features network connectivity and a 5" touchscreen
with 800x480 pixels.
Release:
https://tigers-mannheim.de/download/release2018/Electronics-2018.zip

*Firmware*
- Support for the SX1280 and SKY66112 modules (in base station and
mainboard code).
- Enhanced wireless transfer protocol to make best use of the new modules.
- Adaption of the base station code to the new hardware (incl. completely
new user interface).
- Base station touchscreen supports manual control of a single robot for
demonstration purposes.
- Base station can be configured via touchscreen.
- New feature: Asynchronous Bang-Bang trajectories. They are intentionally
not synchronized on the X and Y trajectory to reach a specific
line/direction faster.
- Major update of robot controller and sensor fusion. The robot now uses a
state space controller with acceleration output and model-based friction
compensation when a position source (e.g. SSL Vision) is available. If not
position source is available, local velocity output is used with a
velocity-error correction for encoder readings. All models are derived from
empirical data.
Release: https://tigers-mannheim.de/download/release2018/Firmware-2018.zip

*Software (TIGERs AutoRef)*
- Detect more rule violations
- Updated to new rules
- Significantly improved ball speed detection and chip kick detection (see
Vision Filter)
Code: https://gitlab.tigers-mannheim.de/open-source/AutoReferee

*Software (AI)*
- Enhanced the integrated AutoRef for full automatic simulation of two
teams playing against each other
- Offensive Action Trees for self learning offensive behaviors (see ETDP)
- Multiple new supportive behaviors for supporting the attacker
- Improved the selection of the best suited attacker that should handle the
ball
- Improved the skills that handle the ball, like kicking, receiving,
redirecting, approaching and catching
- Integrated new asynchronous bang bang trajectories into multiple skills
- More robust path planning with ahead-of-time emergency brake
Release:
https://tigers-mannheim.de/download/release2018/Software-2018.tar.gz

*Software (Vision Filter)*
- New chip kick model: We are now using fixed restitution coefficients for
all hops in Z direction, for the first hop in XY direction, and for all
further hops in XY direction (3 parameters in total).
- Online straight kick and chip kick estimation has been updated to use a
direct simplex-based optimization method.
- Chip kick estimation can now optimize a complete trajectory, not only two
hops.
- An additional optimizer can estimate all model parameters for a straight
and chip kick with an evolutionary algorithm (CMAES). Model parameters can
now be fully calculated within Sumatra, no further external software
required.
- The Vision Filter is completey integrated into our official AutoRef
software.
- Kick information from  our own robots is now used as a-priori knowledge
for estimation.
- The viewport architect, which aligns the viewports of the different
cameras and tries to minimize overlap, now supports different modes of how
the viewports are calculated. Based on field size, camera positions, camera
projections, or dynamically on detected robot positions.
- Correction of inbound SSL Vision timestamps. The average rate of each
camera is estimated and the timestamps are corrected for each camera,
mitigating network and processing delays. This increases filter accuracy
for ball and robots.
Release:
https://tigers-mannheim.de/download/release2018/Software-2018.tar.gz

*Software (status-board)*
- A new application for visualizing referee information during a game
including new game events that are announced by the autoRefs.
- Additionally, a live view of the field.
Code: https://github.com/RoboCup-SSL/ssl-status-board-client
Application is available here (and will so during the RoboCup):
https://tigers-mannheim.de/status-board/

Looking forward to seeing you all in Montreal :)

Cheers
TIGERs Mannheim
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