With loads of luggage and close to no sleep we finally arrived in Teheran. We didn’t get much time to rest, because just two hours after the arrival at our hotel we had to depart to the venue and begin with the setup.

Everything seems to be a bit more organized in comparison to our experiences in the last years. Just a few hours later we actually had power and internet access, and we could begin our preparations. Lucky for us, as there were lots of things to be done: Besides having to prepare our two Minibots, this year for the first time we bring two new participants to the IranOpen. While we expect the two new robots, produced by the WF Wolves, to improve our performance, the new platform also brings some new difficulties with it.

By now the damages caused by the flight are fixed and our software is on a good way to be up and running by tomorrow morning. Our robots have been measured and this year we also got a (very brief) referee training. We will now use the rest of the day to keep working on our software, so that we will be ready for our first game tomorrow at 8:30 AM. We can’t wait to see what the following days will bring.

On tuesday, the 20th of February, the annual University Day took place at the UHH. While we couldn’t participate last year, due to the foyers being closed down, this year we could demonstrate our robots and inspire young students to study a computer sience related topic.

Interested students had the chance to steer a robot themselves. Even though Tamara (one of our Darwin-OP robots) usually works autonomously and makes her own decisions, this time we decided to put a leash on, or rather a controller.

The new semester has begun and with it our preparations for next year’s contests. Even though our reportings on this site came to a full stop after we dropped out of the world championship, we kept conversing and interchanging with other teams. Our presentation about the new ROS-architecture during the symposium also was a great success. After a short recreation-phase in the summer, we went back to our normal shedule by September. Our first project in the new semester was a cooperation with the “Gymnasium Walddörfer”, a secondary school in Volksdorf. Together, we hosted a school project week for students in the IT-profile and let them have a peek into the field of robotics. In October we prepared a part of the trial studies, where prospective students could try out studying in computer science during their holidays. During the same week we presented two of our projects at the “Informatik-Expo”: The new ROS-architecture in our league and the ImageTagger, a tool for labeling images.

We also participated in the “lange Nacht des Wissens” again, this year at a panel discussion of the legal studies faculty.

In December we will visit Bordeaux for a weekend to take part in the 5th international Humanoid Soccer School, hosted by team RHOBAN, the current world champion in our league. We’re happily looking forward to an lively exchange.