Just now, just in time for Timons lunch break, we were visited by “J.K.” from Robotis (the manufacturer of our robots), who asked about how it goes.

We have spoken a bit about motors, firmware, plastic pieces and the situation with spare parts, and he promised to do his best concerning some of the points. For example if there is a possibility to get the complete documentation about the registers of the Dynamixels.

Additionally we let him take some pictures of us – and in return took our own one.

We got some praise for our work-group logo, which appeals to J.K. and his colleagues. Kind regards to any employee of Robotis who finds his way to our site 🙂

The game schedule has been announced. In the first round robin we are competing in a group with MRL-HSL from Iran and the Bold Hearts from the United Kingdom.

On wednesday it starts with MRL-HSL against the Bold Hearts at 11:30. In the afternoon we have our first game at 15:30, against MRL-HSL. On thursday at 10:00 we are playing against the Bold Hearts.

Finally the technical challenges will take place on saturday from 10:15 till 16:15.

The first setup day has gone by and today again quite a lot has happened.

In particular the official game balls have been handed out and – surprisingly for all – its colour is kind of an orange-magenta (so it is quite similar to one of the team colours). This means that we have to adjust our colour calibration, which – at the moment – turns out to be quite time-consuming. But this is what setup days are meant for.

With 8 people and 5 robots it is quite cramped at our table, which is the reason why we went (together with the Fumanoids from Berlin) to the local hardware store and got a clickable shelf for extended storage space. At other tables they might think about german tidiness now.

Sitting directly beside us are the Bold Hearts from Great Britain, who we already know from the German Open. As they came only with 3 people, they did mind our space necessities less than what would be expected of other teams. The Bold Hearts are using the Darwin platform too, which has led to knowledge exchange before.

We were able to put up our big poster at a prominent place in the competition hall, thanks to an official who looked the other way. A great thing about the hall is the fact, that it has no windows at all which will probably mean a constant lighting during the day.

Today went by fast with the testing of our software and servicing of the hardware. The latter drove some workgroup members nearly crazy due to nerve-wracking, fiddly work on the cableconnectors. But at 22:30 a speaker message disturbed the bee hive of robocup teams: “30 minutes left, leave the Hall!” Similar to the opening of the hall they pay great attention to punctuality – and at 23:00 the electricity is shut down in the whole hall.

Now we are back to our accommodation and writing down the experiences of the day – if Martin allows it. Because as soon as he boots his (freshly installed!) Ubuntu, everyone else, except him, ist denied any further access to the WLAN. You’ve got to love technology.

Der erste Setup Day ist vorüber, und auch heute hat sich einiges ereignet.

Insbesondere wurden die offiziellen Spielbälle ausgeteilt, und zur Überraschung Aller ist er farblich leicht in Richtung Magenta (also in richtung einer Mannschaftsfarbe) gefärbt. Dadurch müssen wir unsere Farbkalibierung anpassen was sich momentan noch als aufwändig erweist. Aber genau für solche Fälle gibt es die Setup-Days.

Mit 8 Leuten und 5 Robotern ist es an unserem Tisch äußerst eng, darum haben wir uns zusammen mit den Fumanoids aus Berlin als allererstes ein Steckregal im örtlichen Baumarkt beschafft um ein wenig Staufläche zu schaffen.  An anderen Tischen mag man nun über Deutsche Ordnung lächeln, wobei das durch unsere Tische wieder relativiert werden dürfte.

Unsere unmittelbaren Sitznachbarn sind jetzt die Bold Hearts aus Großbritannien, die wir bereits gut von den German Open kennen. Da sie mit nur 3 Personen angereist sind stören sie sich weniger an unserem Platzverbrauch als das bei anderen Teams zu erwarten wäre. Auch die Bold Hearts setzen auf die Darwin-Plattform, sodass es bereits in der Vergangenheit zu regem Austausch zwischen uns kam.

Unser großes Plakat konnten wir dank einer Helferin, die kurz weg geguckt hat, an prominenter Stelle an den Rängen des Stadions in dem wir uns befinden befestigen. Positiv zum Veranstaltungsort lässt sich außerdem feststellen, dass die Halle keinerlei Fenster hat und die Lichtverhältnisse somit den Tag über konstant bleiben dürften.

Der Tag ging schnell vorüber, mit Testen der Software und warten der Hardware. Letztere brachte einige AG-Mitglieder dank Nervenaufreibender Kleinstarbeit an den Kabelsteckern an die grenzen ihrer Belastbarkeit. Doch um 22:30 durchbrach dann die Lautsprecherdurchsage der Veranstalter unsere Betriebsamkeit “30 minutes left, leave the Hall!”. Ähnlich wie beim öffnen der Halle ist man sehr auf Pünktlichkeit bedacht – und um Punkt 23:00 wird die Stormversorgung in der gesamten Halle zwangsweise unterbrochen.

Nun sitzen wir wieder in unserer Unterkunft und schreiben die Erlebnisse des Tages nieder – vorausgesetzt Martin lässt uns.
Bootet er nämlich sein (frisch installiertes!) Ubuntu, so wird augenblicklich jedem anderen Nutzer, außer ihm, der Zugang zum WLAN verwehrt. Technik die begeistert.

We arrived in good time at the competition hall. While most team members searched for a parking space, Sheepy and Jessica went into the hall and took a look around.

When the rest wanted to join them, they were stopped, because the hall had not been officially opened its doors and it was only Sheepys orange Bit-Bots shirt which let them pass unnoticed (the organizers shirts are of a quite similar colour).
The team then regrouped outside the hall to wait and recognized some faces when the other teams arrived. Shortly after eight o’clock the teams were allowed to enter the hall, so we came in (again) and set our stuff up near one of the playing fields. Since then we are testing, installing the new heads and doing everything necessary to get ready.

Today we were busy working again.

At 8 a.m. we got up, had a quick breakfast and went straight back to our modern age notebooks. The beds in our room had to double as desks, testfields and storage racks, so that we have done as much as possible before the Setup-Days starting tomorrow.

 

In the afternoon we finally dared to go outside – and were promptly rewarded with a heavy downpour. Luckily it went by fast and we were able to enjoy our 2 hour long city tour through the centre of Eindhoven.
Something catched our eyes: The city centre is literally wallpapered with RoboCup advertisements. No expenses were spared and every streetlamp was decorated with a suitable banner. Quite possibly there will be a lot of visitors at the World Cup. We are looking forward to it!

After we just had our third and last meeting for today, we are quickly finishing the programming of the daily changes and taking our time to keep you up-to-date. Tomorrow we have to start loading our van at 6:45 a.m. to get a good place at the competition grounds.

Amsterdam and Hamburg are often compared, especially when it comes to having a lot of bridges. That there are still differences and you can not exchange one for the other, is right now viewable on the official World Cup website.

As far as we know, our department has (at least for now) not been taken over by the University of Amsterdam 😉

Update: The mistake has been corrected on the official site

A heartly “Goede Dag” from the Netherlands.

Right at noon this saturday, a team of 8 people went on their way to the World Cup in Eindhoven.

We got stuck in traffic jams twice, but otherwise we had a nice and pleasant journey, during which we were also able to do some further planning.
In the evening we finally reached our accommodation in Eindhoven (after being sent to another place from the address which was given to us). Quite typically we had to climb a lot of narrow and steep stairs, even one of our rooms has a stair in it.

At dinner, some couldn’t stop working and repaired a broken chair in the common room:

Afterwards we had our first team meeting. The tasks of the next days were discussed and noted. Even the staircase had to play its part in the planning.

How will it go on now?

We are curiously looking towards the next days, which will probably have one or more challenges for us, so that we will have to deviate from our planned path. Tomorrow, at sunday, we will work in our accommodation, from monday on we are able to work at the competition grounds and on wednesday the tournament will begin officially.