No Launchbreak For The Newbies

RoboCup season has begun and we're welcoming our new NAOs into our ranks: Curiosity, Dragonfly, Atlas, Hubble and Genesis joined us last year and made their HTWK Robots debut in Hamburg at the RoHow where we ceremoniously bestowed them with names and honors. In V6 tradition, they've all been named after spacecraft. But now it's time to take off the stabilizers and well, take off!

Lost In Translation?

Unfortunately, the inaugural game could have run a little smoother. In a flash of excitement, Hubble suddenly spent the the entire remaining communication budget in a matter of seconds - in minute 6 no less. Of the first half. Well, that hurt and there is certainly a parallel universe in which that didn't happen and we're all a little happier. But the Nao Devils delivered an astronomical performance in their own right!, although we managed to score the first goal, right after the disqualification was announced, the devil came down to Kassel and took the lead. And after that, well there was no coming back from that. Literally! Because once you exceed your communication budget, all your goals are immediately annulled and no further goals are counted. Could it have been a 3:1? Maybe, but we'll never know what would have happened had the things that did happen not happened. It happens! *Or what would have happened, if I wasn't trying to squeeze as many space references into this first part as possible - you know, like a black hole! But yeah, see for yourself:

Watch your step!

Being able to walk is nice and all - but wouldn't it be nice to als see where you're going? Well, we're doing that already but now we added a new dimension, while getting up, our NAOs stabilize in the final seconds, zeroing in on not falling back over (an infamous problem among virtually every time). But if a goalie get's up after diving in front of the ball, the ball is probably still right there in front of him! In the past, we had to discover that these were moments our oppents would readily exploit and we can't have that! So now not only does the NAO start looking while getting up, but he also starts where the ball is most likely to be! Sounds simple, but unsurprisingly, it has its pitfalls.

We know humanity's best friend but what does that mean for humanoid robots? Well you know where this is going! How cute are they together!

But the humans are also great, a robodog is just unfair competition. It's still wonderful, though, seeing everyone back in one place, hacking together, having fun, spending sleepless nights and just absorbing that community of passionate people!