Dear RoboCup SPL Teams,

We hope you enjoyed RoboCup 2023 and had some time to relax from the exciting competition in France.

While the competition of RoboCup 2023 is over by now, some work is still to be done: We want to remind you that the SPL Competition *requires a Code Release from all teams by 15th October 2023*. Please see Section A.7 of the Rules document for details https://spl.robocup.org/wp-content/uploads/SPL-Rules-2023.pdf and announce it via the r*********o@lists.robocup.org mailing list. (Teams that already have published a release can ignore this reminder.)

We also want to update you on the work that is being done towards RoboCup 2024. The TC has been discussing the feedback from team leaders and rule change suggestions. Based on the discussions, the following is planned for the 2024 competition:

* The standard penalty procedure will be simplified. A robot will be placed at the sidelines, facing towards the field. After the penalty time has passed, the GC Operator returns the robot to play, so it can walk into the playing area without any interaction by assistant referees.

* To promote more dynamic ball handling, rule modifications will now enforce that, following each stoppage of play or kick-off, two distinct robots from the same team must make contact with the ball in order for a goal to be considered valid. This represents a revision to the indirect kick rule.

* As a first step for the broader implementation of statistical game analysis, the upcoming competition will extend the scope of the video/game analysis challenge featured in past competitions. Following each game, statistics will be computed, and teams will be evaluated/scored based on specific statistics chosen by the TC.

* We invite participating teams to collaborate with us in developing tools to monitor the SPL's progress within this challenge. If you want your framework to be considered for this, reach out to the TC.

* Towards the RoboCup 2050 goal of robots playing with human players, we plan to hold a technical challenge in which fully autonomous NAOs play alongside remote-controlled NAOs.

You can expect further details on the upcoming changes as the TC will release draft versions of the rules document

As the Nao v6 becomes older, we need to plan ahead for its replacement. To begin, we want to create a discussion on the SPL Discord server on channel Platform-evolution https://discord.com/channels/721967993860521996/1153394972234616873. The idea would be mostly to create a list of products or projects in development that could be interesting to investigate. Points to consider : Similar pricing to Nao, support, availability, etc.

Best regards Stefan Seering on behalf of the RoboCup SPL TC and OC.