📅 6th to 7th of April 2024
📍 Hangar Crailsheim
🏆 3rd Place
This year’s tournament in Crailsheim was our first tournament in Division A – aka with the big boys! So it was a very good preparation for this year’s RoboCup in Eindhoven, where, unlike the last two years, we will also be competing in Division A.
Division A – What does that mean?
The biggest and most obvious differences to Division B, in which we have always played so far, are the number of robots and the size of the playing field: while Division B is played with 6 robots on 9 x 6 meters, Division A has up to 11 robots on 12 x 9 meters. However, the rules also differ and, for example, the ball is not placed manually by the human referee after an out, but autonomously by the robots themselves. In the words of the Technical and Organizing Committee: “Division A is aimed at advanced teams whereas new and/or less competitive teams can play in division B.” More detailed information can be found in the official rules!
This year’s tournament was once again hosted by Gerhard Schubert GmbH Verpackungsmaschinen in cooperation with the city of Crailsheim and co-organized by the Erlangen robotics team “ER-Force“. And once again this year, the teams from Enschede (RoboTeam Twente), Mannheim (TIGERs Mannheim) and Erlangen (ER-Force) were at the start, whom we were able to challenge on the playing field with our 8 robots – and not even unsuccessfully, because in the end we made it to 3rd place again!
What did we learn this weekend?
Overall, we can say that the move to Division A was the right decision and that we still have a lot to learn and develop here. This weekend alone, for instance, we identified some potential for improvement that we now need to work on. The collaboration between the individual modules (electronics, mechanics, planning and strategy) should be explicitly mentioned here, as they are still not sufficiently coordinated. This means that changes in one of the modules require a whole series of necessary adjustments in the other modules, which in turn is very time-consuming. But that shouldn’t stop us from tackling this problem and putting together a solid team of robots in time for the RoboCup in July!
Team Leader Leon summarizes: “With a little work, we will definitely be a worthy challenger and serious opponent in our first Division A season!”
