[patrickrd]

Today we did not get the two wins we needed. However, we are not out of the race either. Our first game we tied 0-0. Niether team could get things working well enough to score goals. Our second game was much better, but still pathetic by our standards. We fielded five robots for a portion of the game for the first time, and our robots were much more controlled (but very slow). We won 3-0. We're fixing problems slowly, but I think it it will be a long shot to make it to the finals. In fact, there is a good chance we do not advance past the first round.

In order to advance, we need to be among the first two teams of the six in our round robin group. Lucky Star is clearly the most functional, and Plasma-Z is also relatively functional. To advance, we must win our game tomorrow, and the Canadians must beat Plasma-Z. That would give us an outright 2nd place and we would advance. If Plasma-Z ties the Canadians, then we would be tied with Plasma-Z for second place at 3-1-2. The team with more total goals would advance. Right now we are three goals behind their goal total, so we would need a good game tomorrow. Unfortantely, we cannot control the outcome of the Plasma-Z game. Ironically, Plasma-Z has robots with nearly identical mechanical design as our robots last year (which is great, sharing information is encouraged in RoboCup).

Well, we are having a lot of electrical problems. Our robots (with 400 mhz computers onboard each robot running Windows CE) are very powerful and have a lot of features. They break down a lot with problems very difficult to diagnose. Mechanically, we solved a problem with kicking failure, and our system is quite robust right now requiring rare maintenance. In our spare time, we completed our goalie robot, which works great. But we may or may not introduce it to the game tomorrow, depending on the importance of the game and what other things need to be done. Major control problems, vision problems, and AI problems seem to still exist.

Today Portugal beat Holland 3-1 in the semifinals of the EuroCup soccer tournament held here in Portugal. There are people running all around singing, horns honking, whistles blowing. It's an amazing time to be here during that tournament as well.