[robocup-small] September RoboCup SSL Update

[Ryan Strat]

Hello SSL Teams,

RoboCup 2020 planning is underway and we (the Organizing and Technical
Committees) would like to inform you of our priorities for the year and
some information on the rules updates that are being written. As always, if
you have any questions or suggestions to improve the league, please reach
out to us via Email or on Discord <https://ssl.robocup.org/contact/>.

*Important Dates for RoboCup 2020*

   - Team Qualification Material Submission Deadline: January 21, 2020
   - TDP Peer Review Deadline: February 11, 2020
   - Preliminary Team Qualification Results Announcement: February 25, 2020
   - Final TDP Submission Deadline: March 10, 2020
   - Final Team Qualification Results Announcement: March 24, 2020
   - Team Setup: June 23 – June 24, 2020
   - Competitions: June 25 – June 28, 2020
   - Symposium: June 29, 2020


See https://ssl.robocup.org/robocup-2020-qualification

*Planned Rule Updates*

Below is a short summary of the changes we are working on, and *these rules
may be further modified *when the official rule book is updated. There will
be another email in a few weeks detailing these changes and the reasoning
behind them. Please hold questions until that email is sent.


   - *[Div A only]* The field size will be approximately doubled to a size
   of 12m by 18m, pending approval from the Bordeaux Local Organizing
   Committee.
   - *[Div A only]* The number of robots allowed on the field will be
   increased from 8 robots to 11 robots, pending approval to increase the
   field size)
   - Teams will be limited to using only 2 rf channels in the 2.4GHz band
   simultaneously at competition to ensure that we can provide non-overlapping
   channels to every team. 2.4 GHz Wifi will be disallowed. We are still
   investigating solutions for teams on 5GHz Wifi, but no decisions have been
   reached.
   - Yellow/Red cards issued during a match will now require the removal of
   the offending robot, rather than any robot on the field. This is to prepare
   the rules for teams with more than one type of robot.
   - In the event that play is stopped because of a foul (for example due
   to a bot collision), play will resume at the location of the ball when play
   is stopped (current rules resume play at the site of the offense).
   - Ball placement will have some minor adjustments made to improve the
   flow of matches.
   - The automatic robot exchange area idea discussed during the league
   meeting in Sydney has been shelved and will not be implemented for RoboCup
   2020.
   - All teams are required to bring posters to RoboCup 2020.
   - We’re currently experimenting with vision patterns based on AprilTags.
   No decisions have been made regarding future use within the league.


*Technical Challenges*

There will be two technical challenges in 2020:

   - Vision Blackout Challenge: For all teams that couldn’t participate
   this year, the Vision Blackout Challenge will be repeated again next year,
   though with a few modifications. We still have to work out the details, but
   expect some updates on this topic rather soon.
   - *[Div B only]* Ball Placement Challenge: Advancing from division B to
   division A is no easy task, not only because of the level of competition or
   the cost of more robots. One challenge is implementing the automatic ball
   placement procedure. To make that transition a little bit easier, we will
   revive the ball placement challenge from 2016, but for division B teams
   only.



Ryan Strat
ryan at str.at
+1 (678) 517-3393
RoboCup Small Size League <https://ssl.robocup.org> | Organizing Committee
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