Dear Humanoid Teams,
This is the eleventh Humanoid league newsletter summarizing the following updates:
- Mock-competition - Training schedule - Specifications updates - Model validation - Rule updates and voting process - Updated Discord structure - Bug fixes
Mock-competition ================
From June 4th to June 6th, 10 teams took part in the mock-competition.
We noticed that many teams struggled connecting their robot control software to the robot model in the simulator and hence adapted our initial schedule to make testing easier and feedback to teams faster. This testing scheme will also be used until the beginning of the competition and is presented later in this document.
Those 3 days of competition already allowed the organizers and the competitors to detect some bugs and discuss the implementation of the rules.
You can already watch a few penalty shoot-outs and short games that were streamed on our twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/robocuphumanoidleague
Training schedule =================
As previously mentioned, providing all the requested materials is a difficult step for the competitors since the games are run automatically, small details can lead to the robots unable to connect or to listen to the GameController.
Therefore, we propose to all teams several training sessions to ensure that their robots are able to participate to the competition this year.
The steps of the training are the following:
1. Model Verification 2. Connection test 3. Walking test 4. Penalty shoot-out 5. Short game 6. Full Game
The upcoming sessions for testing on the competition infrastructure are:
- Saturday 12th: 8h-11h - Monday 14th: 20h-23h - Wednesday 16th: 8h-11h - Friday 18th: 8h-11h - Sunday 20th: 20h-23h
All times are CEST. You will find more details on how to register for training sessions and current progress of the teams on the humanoid league Discord.
We strongly recommend all teams to register for the training sessions in order to make sure they are able to compete or to solve the problems they are facing. Note that you can only attempt the next step that you have not previously passed. Hence, it is not possible to request to play a full game if the connection test was not passed already. Please plan your time accordingly so you get through all steps before the competition starts.
Specifications updates ======================
During the mock-competition we noticed some minor adjustments or clarifcations required to the specification documents. We performed the following updates:
- Model specification v1.05: - Model constraints::Embedding a robot (additional requirement due to performance impact) - Appendix::Configuration of hand (clarification of the rule) - Simulator API v1.01: - Updating documentation on image format (images sent are BGR images and not RGB images) - First connection time can take up to 1m30 - Since the duration of a simulation step is variable, the robot control software needs to be able to handle at least 15 seconds without receiving messages from the simulator - Server specifications v1.02: - Clarification on the nvidia version used on the instances - A reference to an AMI for the clients is now available - Private logs can now be written in two different folders to allow teams to retrieve some logs more quickly than other, potentially larger ones
You can always find the most recent version of all those documents at the head of the V-HSC page: https://humanoid.robocup.org/hl-2021/v-hsc/
Model Validation ================
The deadline for submitting the model is today 23:59 AOE (Anywhere On Earth), so there is still a few hours to go. However, we have already started discussing with some teams to make sure all the teams are able to participate in the competition with their robots.
During the upcoming days we will review the models and if we find anything that does not respect the rule, we will come back to you with requests for modifications.
The list of the accepted robots will be updated regularly on: https://humanoid.robocup.org/hl-2021/teams/
Rule updates and voting process ===============================
During the the mock-competition, we have already noticed a few changes that may be desirable in the rule book or that were requested by the teams. As it was announced earlier, those rule changes will be voted by team leaders and will need a two third majority of the expressed votes to be accepted.
A vote from team leader is requested on: http://hrisurvey.research.it.uu.se/index.php/335921?lang=en
Please, vote only once per team. If your team participates to two different size classes, it can vote twice. The deadline for voting is Monday, June 14th 23:59 AoE.
Updated Discord structure =========================
The Discord server of the league will be the main point of communication until the end of the competition.
If you find technical problems, competitors and organizers are often pretty quick to answer them if you reach out on Discord. It also allows quick interactions with all TC members and allow us to bring an answer to your questions as quickly as possible while keeping an overview of the team requests.
The global structure of the Discord is the following:
- OC Area [V-HSC21]: The place for announcements and status update from the organizers, and an area for teams to ask organizational questions, request discord updates and inform that an update was made to a robot model. You will also find the organizers in the voice channel "OC-Table" during office hours, training sessions and the competition. - Public Area [V-HSC21]: Multiple channels for public discussions, both in written and vocal form - Team-Area-Kid [V-HSC21] and Team-Area-Adult [V-HSC21]: Each team has its own text and voice channels to communicate among themselves or with the organizers. The voice channel are accessible to everyone and we highly encourage teams to use this area during the competition and to get in touch with other teams in their voice channels. The text channels are team-internal and can only be accessed by the teams and the organizers. They are used for discussions and updates that only concern that specific team. - Thematic discussions: For all general public discussions.
Make sure to join and ask us in the #discord-requests to give you access to your team channel: https://discord.gg/3kv9ERvCEV
Simulator updates =================
Since the last public release and more particularly since the mock-competition, we brought many fixes to the simulator based on your feedback. Given the current timeline, we try to merge the fixes in the release branch as frequently as possible to avoid any delay. Therefore we are not sending release announcements anymore for the fixes.
Here is a short list of the topics fixed or changed over the last few days:
- The ball holding implementation was softened to trigger less false positives - Implementation of the check of the goalkeeper position during penalty shootout has been changed to be closer to the rules and trigger less false positives - Implementation of the removal penalty was updated - Score display during penalty shootouts was fixed - Synchronization of the GameController and the AutoReferee was improved
Note that in order to run the latest version, you should update the GameController as well.
Stay tuned for changes by watching our two official repositories:
- https://github.com/RoboCup-Humanoid-TC/webots - https://github.com/RoboCup-Humanoid-TC/GameController
We welcome all your questions and comments on the Discord channel and the Forum.
Cheers,
Ludovic (for the Humanoid League Organizing Committee)