Draft Proposal for SSLV (Small Scale Local Vision) sub-league of RoboCup F180 League

The intent of the SSLV is to promote the development of vision-based fully autonomous small-scale RoboCup soccer players based on an emerging class of low-cost commercial off-the-shelf mobile robots and robot simulation tools, employing and extending the state-of-the-art in self-localization, object recognition/tracking, self-organization of multiple robots, sensory data sharing, etc. Though no global vision (overhead or fixed camera) is allowed, rules of the existing structure of the F180 league will be used to the extent possible, along with some ideas drawn from the Aibo Four-Legged League ("FLL"). Law 1 - The Field of Play dimensions are not absolutely critical - in fact, robots should be able to adapt to varying field conditions, though the field should be in the range of 4-meters x 5-meters, as defined for F180 or FLL, with colors and markings set to provide minimal visual confusion for the robots. Colors and markings should follow guidelines used in F180 or FLL play, with the addition of colored beacons used in FLL for localization Law 2 - The Ball orange golf ball, same as F180 Law 3 - The Number of Robots suggest reducing this to 4 in order to reduce interference in localization Law 4 - The Robotic Equipment robotic equipment must be fully autonomous. human operators are not permitted to enter any information into the equipment during a match, except at half time or during a time-out no global vision (i.e. no overhead or fixed field cameras) - only allowed cameras are mounted to robots, with images captured by robots' on-board processors. wireless transmission of images limited to permitted bandwidth as stated below. robot markings are similar to F180, except that colored markers are visible on the sides of robots instead of the top. robots should ideally be based on unmodified commercial-off-the-shelf products with only the addition of a passive ball-handling fixture in order to facilitate "one-design classes". in any case, no active ball handling mechanism is allowed (e.g. dribbler, kicker). ball-handling fixture is a simple arc (10-cm radius ?), with a span of no more than 10cm, height of no more than 2cm, and ground clearance of no more than 1cm. ends of the fixture should be shaped as to provide minimal damage in case of contact with other players, refs, etc. "one design" sub-classes of same-type robots are provided if 4 or more teams are entered in a given competition wireless communication between robots allowed. off-board processing is allowed, but maximum allowable bandwidth allocation for each robot is 100kbps. it must be possible for referee to verify level of bandwidth usage a device will be supplied to each team that converts the referee's signals into a serial communication signal that is transmitted to both teams Law 5 - The Referee Law 6 - The Assistant Referee same as F180 Law 7 - The Duration of the Match suggest reducing this to 2 x 10 minute periods, same as FLL rules. teams switch goals at half-time. Laws 8-17 - Game Play based on F180, with some simplification. no free kicks. robots are free to touch the ball multiple times without penalty. no offsides. references: F180 rules - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~brettb/robocup/rules/f180rules2006.pdf Four-legged rules - http://www.tzi.de/4legged/pub/Website/Downloads/Rules2006.pdf