Northern Bites win over NuBots with 5:1! GermanTeam wins Passing Challenge and Complete Challenge! Aiboteam says Goodbye

Sunday, July, 8, 2007, 4 p.m.

Finals. Today is the last day of the RoboCup games. In the morning the second challenge took place where the players had to pass the ball between each other and where the GermanTeam was victorious! This contributed with some kind of luck that the GermanTeam won the Challenges in total, even though there were some weeknesses in the task to cross a field by two robots synchronously, whereas the field was full of obstacles. In the game for third place team CMU from the U.S. could win over the Chinese team Wright Eagle. But not before an exciting penalty shootout. In a less exciting but therefore technically brilliant game the NorthernBites from Brunswick, Maine, USA won over the NuBots from Australia with 5:1. Thus the NorthernBites are the new World Champion. We congratulate. After all we are a bit sad because this Final was the last game, wherein the Aibo dogs participated. The decision for a new standard platform will be coming soon. In the name of all team members I want to thank our fans for their support in this year as in all years before. The Aiboteam has finished its regular work, but new tasks are already waiting, e.g. in the HumanoidTeam, where some team mates will continue their work soon. (DG)

Saturday, July, 7, 2007, 7 p.m.

Semifinals. We moved over to the CRC. There's more going on than in the Fox Theater. At the beginning a few potential Aibo successors were presented. In the afternoon the semifinals took place. The first one was won by the NuBots agains Wright Eagle from China. The second game was won by the Northern Bites against CMU. Thus tomorrow in the final the NuBots will be playing against the Northern Bites. (DG)

Friday, July, 6, 2007, 9 p.m.

The heat is on. Even though the power was not - in the Fox Theater. Here we had some voltage fluctuations, what caused a breakdown of some power adaptors and a complete power breakdown. The problem could be fixed by now. Our quarter final will start at 11 a.m. (5 p.m. German time), which seems to become a real challenge for the. This became clear not only after the yesterday test game of the Northern Bites against UT. Some of us tend to call them already the NuBites, which is a hint to their NuBots like game play. The first quarterfinal was won by the NuBots, with a 12:0. In the quarterfinal the GermanTeam was defeated by the NorthernBites with a 4:1 and thus loses the tournament. The main reason for the defeat were the bad ball grabbing combined with a bad localization which caused many penalties for illegal defenders. Shortly after that the GermanTeam rolled up, because tomorrow we will move over to the CRC hall in which the semi finals and the final will take place as well as the presentation of the Aibo successor candidates. The social event also took place today, it was arranged very simple in a fast food restaurant. Every student could have a meal for free. In the evening we had a quiter time. Tomorrow the challenges will take place, in which a robot has move over a field filled with obstacles and in a second session to pass a ball within a group of robots. (DG)

Thursday, July, 5, 2007, 11 p.m.

Quarter Final reached. Today began more relaxed than the days before as our first game startet at 12. Our first oppenent were the Baby Tigers. We reached a 10:0 against them. Later we had our last game of the preliminaries against UT from Austin, Texas. During the game our attackers were early disturbed by the Texanian defense. so in the first half we could reach a 1:0, only. A second goal was given at first but later rejected when it became clear that the half time was already over. In the second half our team could score two more goals, leading to a final result of 3:0. Anyway, the American team never became dangerous to our goalie. In group J the Northern Bites scored a 3:2 against the Microsoft Hellhounds, which led to an early end of their team in the competition. So there will be no new game gainst them as it was at the WC in Bremen 2006. Tomorrow our opponent will be the Northern Bites, a strong team which made a big progress during the last couple of months. (DG)

Wednesday, July, 4, 2007, 11 p.m.

Independence Day. Today our second game of the first preliminary took place. With the yesterday improvements we achieved a 10:0 against our first opponent, team LTU from the U.S. This opponent gave up shortly after. Thus we reached the second preliminaries. In the second round robin, in the late evening we late achieved a victory against "SPQR + ISocRob-MSL", a cooperation from Italy and Portugal, also with a 10:0. The other preliminary games will be performed tomorrow. The last our programming was canceled for today. Therefore a big part of the team visited the firework and the live show in the Centennial Park, the park, who was the center of all public celebration at the Olympic Games in 1996. Our visit was rewarded with an astonishing, ten minut firework, which was combined with a mixture of patriotic and classic music. (DG)

Tuesday, July, 3, 2007, 6 p.m.

Competition Start. At 12 p.m. the World Champion, NuBots from Australia opened the competition, which he won against the Baby Tigers with a strong 9:0. One our later the GermanTeam achieved a victory against Araibo from Japan. Again this first game was not very beautiful to watch, the first goal could not be scored until the last five seconds of the first half. Anyway the GermanTeam accomplished its plan for today. The game was followed by a test game against our former arch rival CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) from Pennsylvania, USA, which the GermanTeam won with a more convincing 5:0. Improvements were made presumably in color classification. Thus the first step towards the second preliminaries was made. Tomorrow at 10 a.m. local time, i.e., 4 p.m. german time we will do our second game, which we are eager to see. (DG)

Monday, July, 2, 2007, 9 p.m.

Calibrations, Measurements and first Testgames. In the morning the lighting on the field was improved. Immediately we could start to create the necessary logfiles for creating color tables. In the following the GermanTeam set up wireless communication for all teams and an internet connection for itself, ensuring communication with our loved ones at home. In the evening we performed a test match against team Northern Bites from the USA. They showed to be a very tough opponent. Goals from the GermanTeam could only scored at the beginning, when the Northern Bites hat some technical problems. Potential on our side can be found on ball recognition, because of the still bad lighting. Furthermore we need improvement for the ball grabbing, because the carpet is very slippy and hard. Additionally we measured wireless communication traffic With the new rules it is not allowed to communicate more than 64 kBit/s within a team, otherwise that team will be disqualified. This is to ensure the wireless operable for every team. Thus the current day is almost over and in a few minutes the GermanTeam will start its way home through Atlanta. P.S.: A game schedule in online now. (DG)

Sunday, July, 1, 2007, 1 p.m.

Installation and Setup. At 12 p.m. the Fox Theater was opened. The team area is located next to the Egyptian Room in which the games take place. Only bad thing is that we have to move on Friday into another location. The lighting conditions were also pretty bad. Till the evening this problem could not be fixed, also due to the fact that the theater has to be empty at 10 p.m. which is enforced by the police. One positive side effect of this is that every team member should be able to get enough sleep. Tomorrow the preparations will enter the next stage. (DG)

Saturday, June, 30, 2007, 9 p.m.

Arrival in Atlanta. The Aiboteam reached Atlanta in two groups today. While Matthias, Heinrich and Thomas arrived without further promblems, the plane from Katja, Dieter and Daniel had to perform an emergency landing in Manchester. This was due to health problem of a pregnant woman on board. This delayed our arrival by 3 hours. Nevertheless the appartments are on a nice campus of GeorgiaTech University and we are now about to acclimate. (DG)

Friday, June, 29, 2007, 4 p.m.

Travel Preparations. All bags are packed, the Aibos have already reached Atlanta and can't wait till the tournament starts. The Aiboteam will follow tomorrow, when our journey starts. Also our two legged friends, the HumanoidTeamHumboldt and the SimulationTeam are flying with us to the games. The competition in Atlanta promises to become a very tight one in the Sony Four Legged League. Already in April, the GermanTeam, being a union from the Aiboteam, the Darmstadt Dribbling Dackels and the Bremen Byters, beat the current World Champion NUbots from Newcastle, Australia and thereby proofed its claim for this year's World Championship title... (DG)