The Technical Committee (TC) of RoboCup soccer simulation 2D league has decided to implement the following rule changes in the next RoboCup world competition, which will be held in Bordeaux, France. These rule changes are based on the road-map discussion which was held during the 2019 competition:
Rule Changes for 2020 Tournament (Soccer Simulation 2D)
Omni-directional dash mode
To allow players to dash in any directions. The dicrection parameter for the dash command will be within the range [0, 359], while it is currently only four (i.e., up down, left and right).
Automatic judge for “defensive wall”
To introduce a rule to prohibit the “defensive wall” by a team in their own penalty area or their goal area. More details should be discussed among TC. The rough idea is that if there are more than a certain number of players (say N) in the penalty/goal area for a certain number of successive cycles ( say T), the referee gives a free kick to the attacking team.
Challenge competition in 2020
We plan to hold “Anonymous challenge” at the 2020 competition in Bordeaux where the soccer server does not tell the teams the name of the opponent team. The team has to play soccer without knowing the opponent team name.
Change for near future
To add an additional dimension to the ball (z-axis). The ball will “fly” in the air by the kick command issued by a player. The kick command will then have three parameters: kick power, kick angle in the x–y plane, and kick angle in the z-axis.
Implementation Ideas for the Rule Changes
Omni-directional dash mode
Change the value of server::dash_angle_step to 0 or 1
Automatic judge of “defensive wall”
Rule and its parameters:
ILLEGAL_DEFENSE is called when the number of defenders in their penalty area is more than or equal to N and this situation has lasted over T cycles.
N: server::illegal_defense_number = 7
T: server::illegal_defense_duration = 20
The play mode in case of illegal defense
foul_illegal_defense_[lr] -> free_kick_[lr]
Re-starting point of the ball
Somewhere in the penalty area
Anonymous team name
server::fixed_team_name_l = “”
server::fixed_team_name_r = “”
Schedule for Rule Change Implementations
Omni-directional dash model
by October 31, 2019: Pre-release and test
by December 31, 2019: Official release
Automatic judge for “defensive wall”
by December 31: Pre-release and test
by February 28, 2020: Official release
Anonymous game mode
by February 28, 2020: Pre-release and test
by April 30, 2020: Official release
Three-dimensional ball movement
at the 2020 competition: Pre-release and trial exhibition
by the 2021 competition: Official release