Author: Joachim Selke

After a two-year break due to Corona, the well-known German robotics competition, the RoboCup German Open, will take place again this year. However, the event will not yet be held as a central event again in 2022, but will be held for the respective leagues at five locations at different times in order to take into account the still difficult boundary conditions for presence events. All tournament dates can be found at robocup.de/go2022.

The German RoboCup Regional Committee has decided that no central RoboCup German Open will be held in 2022, mainly due to the ongoing pandemic situation. Instead, smaller events will be planned in the respective major leagues. The RoboCupJunior qualification tournaments will take place as in previous years. Registration is now open at https://www.robocup.de/call_rcj2022. The deadline for registration is 30 November 2021. The final of the German RoboCupJunior Championship is planned for April 2022 in Kassel.

The RoboCup German Open rescue robotics league was held this year from 27-30 September in Dortmund at the Competence Center for Robotics (DRZ). Six teams from three nations faced the challenges in the disciplines Mobility, Maneuvering and Dexterity. In addition to the four experienced teams Hector, AutnonOHM, Dynamics (Austria) and Francor, two newcomers also took part this year, Team Siemens Space Agency and Team Club Capra, which travelled from Canada. Details of the competition and a list of all winners can be found here. Due to the very good working and competition conditions for the participating teams, a staging of the RoboCup German Open rescue robot league will also be considered in 2022 in Dortmund at the DRZ.

Despite the cancellation of both the RoboCup German Open 2021 and the German RoboCupJunior Championship due to the pandemic, the RoboCupJunior qualification for the virtual RoboCup World Championship 2021 took place in the last few weeks. As expected, far fewer teams took part, as it has been almost impossible to hold robotics workshops in schools in recent months. The results of the qualification can be found at https://bit.ly/Results-Quali-RCJ2021. We wish the qualified teams every success at the virtual RoboCup 2021.

After 22 months, matches with 5 against 5 robots are taking place again for the first time in the RoboCup Standard Platform League. Only the robots of the seven participating teams have travelled to one of the two arenas in Dortmund and in Bremen. The human team members stayed at home and programmed the robots remotely.

The qualification of German RoboCup Junior Teams for the virtual RoboCup 2021 (22-28 June 2021) will take place in the three leagues OnStage, Rescue and Soccer through a virtual selection procedure. Pre-registration for the selection process is required by 10 May at https://bit.ly/Voranmeldung-RCJ2021. Qualification will be performed by a jury on the basis of submitted team videos and a technical description of the robots. The deadline for submission of the qualification material is 26 May 2021. All information on the call is available at https://robocupgermanopen.de/Call-RCJ2021.

[caption id="attachment_438" align="alignnone" width="300"] © www.AndreasLander.de[/caption] The reduction of the RoboCup German Open to just the RoboCup Junior Final, which was initially planned due to the Corona virus pandemic, is no longer possible due to the current developments in Germany. Unfortunately, the event has to be cancelled. The organizer, Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg, will consult with representatives of the German RoboCup Regional Committee to examine the possibility of postponing the event.

From 24 to 26 April 2020, the RoboCup German Open will come to Magdeburg for the 10th time. For the international research competition RoboCup Major alone, 48 teams from 15 different countries have pre-registered. There has been a particularly high increase in the school competition RoboCup Junior, in which 645 teams are now participating nationwide. Starting in mid-February, the teams for the RoboCup Junior Finals will be decided in eight qualifying tournaments: Hamburg University of Technology (15 and 16 February 2020), Mannheim University of Applied Sciences (15 and 16 February 2020), Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences Sankt Augustin (15 and 16. February 2020), Herbartgymnasium Oldenburg (26 to 28 February 2020), University of Kassel (27 and 28 February 2020), A32 - Entrepreneurs Forum, Berlin (29 February and 1 March 2020), University…

Vom 24. bis 26. April 2020 kommen die RoboCup German Open zum 10. Mal nach Magdeburg. Allein für den internationalen Forscherwettbewerb RoboCup Major haben sich 48 Teams aus 15 verschiedenen Ländern vorangemeldet. Eine besonders hohe Steigerung gibt es beim Schülerwettbewerb RoboCup Junior, an dem bundesweit mittlerweile 645 Teams teilnehmen. Ab Mitte Februar werden in acht Qualifikationsturnieren die Teams für das RoboCup-Junior-Finale entschieden: Technische Universität Hamburg (15. und 16. Februar 2020), Hochschule Mannheim (15. und 16. Februar 2020), Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg Sankt Augustin (15. und 16. Februar 2020), Herbartgymnasium Oldenburg (26. bis 28. Februar 2020), Universität Kassel (27. und 28. Februar 2020), A32 – Entrepreneurs-Forum, Berlin (29. Februar und 1. März 2020), Universität Hannover (2. bis 4. März 2020) und im Kulturzentrum Vöhringen (7. und 8. März 2020).

We are deeply saddened to report that Prof. Gerhard Kraetzschmar passed away last week.  He had been battling health issues, but seemed to be on the road to recovery.  Reports from his family are that his condition took an unexpected turn for the worse over the weekend and he passed away peacefully after a rapid decline. Gerhard was a regular participant in RoboCup since the very early years of our organization.  He was a trustee of the RoboCup Federation starting in 2005, and served as Vice President from 2009 until 2016.  In 2016, he served as General Chair of RoboCup in Leipzig, Germany.  His contributions to RoboCup over the years were substantial and numerous. Gerhard was a dear friend to many of us in our community.  We will remember him as always smiling and…