[Discussion] Technical Challenges

Some changes to the technical challenges have been proposed:

  1. In the 2022 rule voting it was already accepted, that a Software Challenge, similar to that of the SPL, should be introduced. This challenge gives teams the opportunity to present parts of their code and display how it can benefit the league. However, it has not been decided yet, what this challenge should look like in detail. What are the constraints, and how should the contestants be judged?

  2. A new technical challenge was proposed, in which the contestants are measured in different common RoboCup tasks (e.g. walking speed, vision, kicking, uneven terrain, etc.). The idea is, that this serves as a benchmark to compare novel approaches against. Furthermore, if repeated over several years, the development of the league can be seen. What are your opinions on this challenge, and which tasks should be evaluated?

  3. It has been proposed, that the parkour challenge should be removed and replaced. The reason is, that this challenge does not represent tasks that are helpful or required in the RoboCup context. What are your opinions on this proposal?

(1) could follow similarly to SPL rules. Not sure what their voting form looks like, but we could have some specific sections to rate (usefulness to the league, novelty, how easy it is for other teams to use).

(2) I guess this goes back to the thread on the communication protocol - if this is a technical challenge, it could require the use of the common robocup communication protocol for some tasks, and that could encourage uptake of the protocol.

For (3), maybe some sort of short obstacle course (eg cones that the robot needs to zig zag around, uneven terrain). To focus on the motion aspect, the teams could control the path the robot takes.

I think we should have a running challenge. The rule would be simple:

The robot must cross the complete field from goal line to goal line in the shortest time. The fastest one wins :slight_smile:

Also, after 2022, I think that the parkour TC should be removed. It was controversial from the beginning, and the way the teams made it this year presented no real challenge.