Hello everyone,
In Germany, it is allowed for robots from different teams to use similar fundamental components, such as identical motors, sensors, or chassis. We want to ensure that the same rule applies at the international level.
We are considering registering two teams and want to make sure this setup complies with the regulations for RoboCup Junior Soccer 2v2.
Thank you for your clarification and support!
Best regards
Melissa Katolnik on behalf of the i-bots
Hi Melissa,
this is a difficult question, not so much because it is difficult to say what is allowed but because it is difficult to know what specifically you’d be sharing.
I am assuming this is not about splitting a team into two or starting a new team with existing robots from another team. That would violate the principle of teams having to be the ones who constructed the robots (it must be substantially their design).
Where exactly you draw the line for it being the teams design is not always 100% clear. Using parts and assemblies is allowed if they’re either open source or bough “off the shelf” and not specifically RoboCup parts. The “robot-part” of the robot needs to be the teams design and implementation. Implementing ideas and designs based on other teams’ designs is explicitly encouraged (there are some trends you can see looking at posters here for example). If you have a full set of parts that only go together one way (e.g. chassis, sensor rings for lines and ball, motors, motor drivers, circuit board to connect it all) that could not be considered the teams work. If you have a bunch of lasercut plates teams can strap motors to themselves that’d of course be OK. If your teams’ designs end up very similar because they did them in the same classes that’s not a problem either. In teaching we expect the goal to be the students acquiring skills and therefore we hope (and check in interviews and documentation if there’s any doubt) that teachers see to it that their teams play fair and only run their own work built with their own skill in the competition.
This basically works the same way for Germany as well as far as I know - I’d have to ask to be able to tell you for sure though.
I hope this helps. If you (or anyone else) find my explanation confusing please ask (ideally with an example or two).
Cheers
David