The GermanTeam wins Robocup again!
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The GermanTeam wins Robocup again! |
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After one of the most exciting matches in the whole history of RoboCup, the result was 2:2. According to the rules the throphy would be assigned after a penalty shootout, and the game put up by both teams to break the tie was not for the feint of heart, but in the end WE MADE IT!
Now we are going to celebrate our victory :-)
Unfortunately, the last Technical Challenge, the Variable Lighting one, didn't result as good as expected. A configuration error in the memory stick submitted to the competition vanished our work. However, the German Team reached a honorable 3rd place in the overall Technical Challenge competition.
The video of the game is available at :
German Team - NuBots (high quality) (210 M)
German Team - NuBots (normal quality) (78 M)
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GermanTeam reaches the FINAL! |
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Playing against the Carnegie Mellon University from Pittsbourgh, USA has always had a particular taste for the GermanTeam. After being beaten by CMU in the quarter finals of 2002 and losing again in 2003 after an endless penalty shootout, we were finally able to best them in the quarterfinals of RoboCup 2004 with the sound score of 9:0.
The game started on time at 10am and it looked good for the GermanTeam since the beginning. Our robots were faster and more aggressive to the ball and didn't leave to the opponents much freedom to show off their ball handling skills. After a few minutes we took the lead for 1:0. Nevertheless CMU was still dangerous and our goalie had to prove his skills in more than one occasion. At the end of the first half the score was 3:0.
The second half started as the first ended. Our robots scored two more times so we were able to win the match for 5:0 and passed to the finals.
Video:
German Team - CMPack05 (high quality) (180 M)
German Team - CMPack05 (normal quality) (59 M)
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GermanTeam puts up a good show in the Technical Challenges |
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Beside the robot soccer there is another competition in the Robocup 4-Legged League, the so called "Technical Challenges". In these challenges advanced tasks have to be solved to push forward the scientific progress.
This year three challenges took place. First the "Almost SLAM Challenge" where a robot has to localize without the help of known landmarks, second the "Variable Lighting Challenge" where the robot has to cope with non-uniform non-stationary lighting conditions to score as many goals as possible, and last the "Open Challenge" where a team can demonstrate a robotic-related scientific achievement of their own choice.
In the "Open Challenge" Michael Spranger from Berlin presented RobotControl2, our new debugging tool which attracted the interest of several other teams.
In the "Almost SLAM Challenge" which was programmed in Dortmund, the GermanTeam was able to show the accuracy of its localization. It was the only team able to reach 4 destination points (out of 5) within the time limit, leaving the runner-up far behind.
Before the last Challenge that starts tomorrow we are tied with ARAIBO at the first place of the current standings.
Videos:
Open Challenge (high quality) (25 M)
Open Challenge (normal quality) (9.3 M)
Slam Challenge (high quality) (42 M)
Slam Challenge (normal quality) (15.8 M)
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We reached the semifinals |
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In the quarterfinal our opponent was Jolly Pochie from Japan. Although Jolly Pochie was the home team here, our robots remained unimpressed by the big crowd (35000 people were expected). We took the lead very quickly and we won the game 5:0.
The video is available at:
German Team - Jolly Pochie(high quality) (161 M)
German Team - Jolly Pochie(normal quality) (60 M)
In the other quarterfinals rUNSWift won against UT Austin Villa for 7:1, NUbots defeated Wright Eagle 3:1 and CMU bested Upenn 5:1. The GermanTeam will face CMU in the semifinals. It will take place at 10am local time (3am in Germany) and will be available as a live stream here.
Links:
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Quarterfinal live-video available |
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[Translate to English:] Heute um 11.30 in Osaka (4.30 in Deutschland) werden wir versuchen das Viertelfinale live zu übertragen. Zum Abspielen wird Winamp (Download auf http://www.winamp.com) benötigt.
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We are in the quarterfinals |
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Today (friday) was the day which decided who reaches the quarterfinals. Since we already had a draw we had to win the remaining games against the Hamburg Dog Bots and the Dutch AIBO Team in order to progress in the tournament. Both of them use the GermanTeam framework and they are quite strong.
In the game against the Dutch AIBO Team the GermanTeam played very well in the first half and was scoring easily, fixing the partial result to 4:0. In the second half the dutch goalie performed some spectacular saves, but the game ended at 5:0.
In our last game of this phase played against the Hamburg Dog Bots. Here our goal was to win with a big goal difference to reach the first place in the group. At the end the score was 3:0. So we were certain of reaching the quarterfinals, however there was still the open question of whether we would be first or second in our group. This was determined later in the game Dutch AIBO Team against Wright Eagle. The game between them ended with a draw (3:3), so we are first in the group and can hope for an easier life in the quarterfinal.
Videos of both games are available online:
German Team - Dutch Aibo Team(high quality) (135 M)
German Team - Dutch Aibo Team(normal quality) (50 M)
German Team - Hamburg Dog Bots (high quality) (106 M)
German Team - Hamburg Dog Bots (normal quality) (39 M)
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It is going to be tough |
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After the initial relatively easy victories, the next opponent of the GermanTeam proved to be a real challenge. Wright Eagle is a chinese team whose code is based on the World Champion 2004 software of the GermanTeam.
In the first half of the game we apparently had some technical problems, and anyway their goalie proved to be very solid throughout the whole match. A narrow 1:1 showed us that the road to the ultimate success is a steep and long one.
Videos:
German Team - WrightEagle (high quality) (138 M)
German Team - WrightEagle (normal quality) (52 M)
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Videos |
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Due to high demand :-), we made the videos of our first games available for download.
German Team - Araibo (hohe Qualität) (132 M)
German Team - Araibo (normale Qualität) (50 M)
German Team - MiPal (hohe Qualität) (116 M)
German Team - MiPal (normale Qualität) (44 M)
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Preliminaries and qualification |
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In the first day of the qualification round we had to play against ARAIBO and MiPal. ARAIBO, a team from Japan participates in the Robocup since 1999 and is well known as one of the strongest teams in Asia. We won with a solid 4:0 against them and we wish this could be the first step to our world champion trophy.
Our second opponent was the Team MiPal/Griffith from Australia. Fortunately they did not oppose a strong resistance and our score of 5:1 was a clear victory.
Links:
Results of the 4-legged League
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The first day |
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German-Team Mitglieder in der Teamarea |
After the long flight and the short night we started the day with a japanese breakfast and went to the competition venue, the Intex Osaka. The Intex is next to the Osaka World Trade Center, the highest building on this island of Osaka.
After we unpacked our equipment we had the first unofficial test game against Tsinghua from China. Because of a configuration mistake our robots played like in slow motion but we still won 1:0. The second test game was better and we won clearly.
In the late afternoon we went to the RoboCup Welcome Dinner where we could japanese food
Links:
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Arrived in Osaka |
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A ticket machine in Osaka |
After very long flights - overall three different routes- all members of our team arrived in their hotels. Most of us went from Frankfurt via Tokyo, some from Frankfurt via Dubai and some from Düsseldorf via Amsterdam to Osaka.
Once we arrived in Osaka we had to orientate ourselfes first. Everywhere signs in Japanese, but fortunately most of them where in western characters too, so we found our hotel quickly. Nevertheless a kind and friendly local helped us to get out of the subway and to check-in in our hotel.
Links:
Tokyo Narita International Airport
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Preparations nearly completed ... |
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This year's Robocup World Championship takes place in Osaka, Japan. Together with the universities of Berlin, Bremen and Darmstadt, we prepared our software in two workshops and fixed the last bugs. This year we will have to defend our title of World Champions.
The students and researchers of Microsoft Hellhounds will fly together with their robots to Osaka on Sunday and Monday. Once we are in Osaka we will join the other universities and participate in the championship as the GermanTeam.
The competitions take place from July 13th to 17th. If it is possible we will broadcast the games live through the internet. By the way, the time shift between Germany and Japan is +7h so a game starting in Japan at 10am will start in Germany at 3am.
Links: