2018 RoboCup German Open - the Carologistics team reports

Day 1: Setting up and the first games

Although Carologistics had already arrived two days earlier, the team from Aachen was not allowed into the trade fair hall until after 12 p.m. in order to set up their robots and to perform the first functional tests and practice games. After all the robots had been unloaded it took only 10 minutes or so to measure the pitch and no more than half an hour later this information had been converted into a robot-friendly form
This information enables the robots to orientate themselves independently on the pitch. But it took until the evening until it was possible to hold the first test game. For example, the laser scanner had to be mounted and calibrated first to enable the robots' vision. And the software on the robots had to be updated.

Day 2: The second set-up day and exciting developments

After leaving the trade fair halls the evening before, the team worked on an action plan for today. And so the movement of the Robotino, that acts as the base platform, was refined in such a way that it is able to travel at triple speed over the pitch. Before this, a limit had been put on the speed of the Robotinos as collisions with other teams' Robotinos constituted infringements, something we wanted to avoid. Thanks to a new idea, it is now possible to prevent such collisions even at higher speeds. But not only in terms of movement was great progress made, also the recognition of conveyor belts in mobile production systems were also successfully tested. Finally, the agent - the intelligence behind the system - was tested the length and breadth of the pitch. When the transition from the first phase of the game (exploration) to the second phase (production) came to a standstill on a few occasions, the problem was addressed immediately and forces were combined to come to a solution shortly afterwards. In light of all those refinements achieved today, the team is already looking forward to the first official day of play.

Day 3: the first day of play

The tournament system on the first day was a "round-robin": every team plays against every other team and the points from each team are added together so that the total number of points forms the basis of the ranking for the playoffs tomorrow. Even if we had to concede victory in terms of total points to the "GRIPS" team from Graz today, we won every one of our games today. In this respect, the last game was particularly nerve-racking as one of the machines allocated to us did not function properly, which completely messed up our game plan. We were nevertheless able to win this game in addition. But it was not only the victory that gave us a sense of satisfaction but the fact that we identified and eliminated several bugs in our agent. The agent is the "intelligence" in our Robotino. Every Robotino has one and it enables the robot to arrive at useful decisions. Tasks are distributed and the strategy as to the best way of exploring the pitch is determined through the agent. Once the pitch has been explored in the first phases, the task in the second phase is to accept instructions for orders and to produce them. In this respect, at least as six interactions have to be performed at four machines even for the simplest of product types. The strength of our agent system is its ability to react appropriately even to unexpected situations. We intend to make even better use of the agents in tomorrow's playoffs.

Day 4: End of the round-robin and beginning of the playoffs

We succeeded in winning our last game in the round-robin with a large points advantage enabling us to start the playoffs with the highest overall score and therefore at the top of the ranking. It was in the first playoff game that we achieved what is known as a C0 for the first time in this tournament. The designations C0, C1, C2 and C3 stand for the complexity of the products that consist of a base, plastic rings and a closing cap. The number after the "C" corresponds to the number of rings that have to be mounted on the base. After the end of the official games, the teams are allowed to continue testing for the next day - the remainder of the playoffs and the grand and minor finals.

Day 5: Victory in the RoboCup German Open

After qualifying for the grand final in the last playoff game, the whole team was looking forward excitedly to the last game in this German Open. And when it finally started, it was more nerve-ranking than we had hoped or expected. For example, it was not until two seconds before the end of the exploration phase that we were able to identify the last machine and draw level with the GRIPS team. Unfortunately, we had also lost a few points during the production phase on account of a machine that was not working properly so that we were still level pegging with the team from Graz at the end of the regular playing time. This meant that extra time was needed for the first time in a Logistics League game in which Carologistics won two points more than GRIPS and was thus able to celebrate the fourth consecutive title in the German Open. The team is now going to take a short break to recover from the strenuous week in order to get off to another good start.
 
The goal is the title of world champion in Montreal in June.