RoboCup International Competition 2004 - Lisbon, Portugal

[Yan Wang]

[edit] I'm not going to attempt to understand the rankings or when they're sporadically updated because it's just confusing... I'll just wait for Patrick's next update. [/edit]

[patrickrd]

Sorry for not updating last night, but I did not obtain access to a computer before we left for the day.

The news is that we are eliminated. Yesterday, we played the Canucks, and needed to win to advance. The game was actually very competitive, we had quite a few shots on goal and opportunities to score. It seemed that we outplayed the Canucks, but no goals were scored. The game ended 0-0, and there is no overtime before elimination matches. The game was frustrating since the ball kept on going out of bounds, and our opponent took about 10-20 seconds each time to take the throw-in. Thus, about 80% of the game was inactive. Had we had more time, I am sure we would have scored. Our system was quite functional for the first time, although we had to remove 1 or 2 robots at times of the game due to miscellaneous electrical or wireless problems. So our record at the competition was 1-1-3. Had we won any of the tied games, we would have advanced.

The outcome was disappointing, but not surprising. We know our new system is an enormous redesign with virtually all aspects of the robots redesigned. Given a couple more weeks, we would probably have been able to win the competition. Given a few more months, we could have made another revision on our electronics and mechanical systems, resulting in very solid robots with unprecidented functionality. I hope that our team next year can take what we have worked on and pack it together into a nice robot design. With the changes we have made (especially an onboard computer), our robots can be a new milestone in the progression of RoboCup.

Today the four quarter-final matches just took place:
Lucky Star (Singapore) 5 - Field Rangers (Singapore) 0
RoboRoos (Australia) 5 - 5DPO (Portugal) 1
CMRoboDragons (USA and Japan) 2 - Canucks (Canada) 1
Fu Fighters (Germany) 3 - Vienna Cubes (Austria) 0

It should be a great semifinal and final!!

[Yan Wang]

That's too bad Patrick. Hopefully the team works out the bugs with the systems for next year's event. Nonetheless, 4 outta 6 years as world champions still ain't bad

So now, I guess I'll root for Fu Fighters since they always have been beaten by Cornell in the Semis. Who do you think will win?

[patrickrd]

The semifinals matches took place today, and the following are the results:

RoboRoos (Australia) 5, CMRoboDragons (USA and Japan) 0
FU Fighters (Germany) 1, Lucky Star (Singapore) 0

Tomorrow the finals and 3rd place match take place. Yan, It'll be a close game but I think Germany is the favorite.

[Andrew Rudolph]

Too bad patrick, thats the chance you take when trying to furthur the quailty of robot. But I'm sure you impressed alot of people out there. Next year when evertyhign ready to go (The other teams have alot of catching up to do I am sure) you guys are totally gonna whoop some bootay.

[Yan Wang]

Results:

1st: FU-Fighters
2nd: RoboRoos2004
3rd: Luckstar
4th: CMRoboDragons'04

Awards:
Engineering Award: FU-Fighters
1st Scientific Challenge: Canucks
2nd Scientific Challenge: FU-Fighters

So Patrick, what cool systems/improvements did FU-Fighters have this year?

[patrickrd]

Yan's got the correct results. The FU Fighters won a close game over the RoboRoos. Their main strength was speed and their ability to push the ball wherever they want it to go (always accelerating into the ball). The other three awards are pretty meaningless, the FU fighters were the only team to enter the engineering award, and the challenges... I didn't even know there were any until now.

I'm heading out of Lisbon today, hitting various locations in Portugal and Spain. Go Portugal!! (eurocup finals tonight)