The rule book of the RCLL contains the rules and regulations teams participating in the competitions
have to follow. They are updated every year to reflect the progress and development of the league.
Typically we aim to have a 2-year cycle of the rulebook, with larger changes introduced in one year and
only smaller changes to stabilize and adjust in the following year.
2023 Several processes and rules were were streamlined in the 2023 season. With the experiences of the 2022 RoboCup, the possibility was added to use alternative forms of wireless communication like broadband cellular. For the main track, the emphasis was on improving scoring w.r.t. respecting delivery windows and discouraging unwanted behavior (like dropping workpieces on the shopfloor). Field sizes can now be dynamically adapted to fit more venues. The navigation challenge was adapted with optional unmarked machines, and a simulation challenge was added in an effort to kick-off a simulation competition for the logistics league.
2022 In 2022 the TC reworked the online format to become a challenge track for real competitions which is suitable for upcoming teams to solve individual challenges of the RCLL. Seasoned teams continue to compete against each other in regular RCLL games in the main track of the competition. The league also relaxed the hardware restrictions to allow the use of alternative robotic platforms other than the Festo robotino for teams competing in the new challenge track. This enables interested teams to explore the different tasks of the RCLL before committing to the standard platform of the league. Given recent developments in the object classification field, the decision was made to rework the exploration in the main track. Firstly, the exploration and production phase are merged to allow machine usage as soon as they are correctly reported. Secondly, the deprecated ALVAR tags got replaced by ARUCO tags as markers for machines. ARUCO tags are widely supported. Thirdly, teams can now chose to play without markers. While currently being an optional choice, the TC decided to establish the use of markerless machine detecting methods in the future by rewarding the play without markers in the games directly, instead of relying on a separate technical challenge for this (as it was the case previously). Lastly, the order schedule within RCLL games in the main track got modified to be less predictable while following simpler generation rules to dispatch orders.
2021 an online format was introduced to allow competitions around the world without being required to gather at the same location or even having a full field setup. The online format consists of different challenges with varying difficulty. While some of the complexity of the regular RCLL game could not be projected to the challenge format, it allowed to introduce new ideas to the league, that can be tested in isolated tasks before the final integration into the regular game rules. New teams also benefit from the challenge format as they can explore the different aspects of the RCLL without having to worry about the full scope yet.
2020 (canceled due to the pandemic)
2019 The RoboCup German Open has developed starting with the first event in 2001 to a well-established and attractive open competition for international RoboCup Major League teams with a strong European focus. In addition, it is since years the German official and only qualification tournament to select German RoboCupJunior teams for participation in the yearly RoboCup. With the fruitful combination of Major and Junior leagues, the event will be held for academic and educational purpose to foster RoboCup activities in Germany – both RoboCup as scientific competition in the RoboCup Major Leagues and RoboCupJunior as an ideal approach to attract young people for science and technology. An additional motivation is to promote RoboCup as an attractive instrument to communicate the importance of STEM for the future of the society.
2018 we are working towards the introduction of a new storage station. This is a long-term effort. This year, the station will provide pre-assembled products that can be bought for delivery.The new rulebook will have only small changes and will be available end of February 2018, see Rulebook 2018.
2017 we changed the field size and zone layout. Production became the main focus by making the exploration phase shorter and less important.The workpieces were marked with barcodes, to track specific products by processing stations and award points for production steps during the game, see Rulebook 2017.
2016 After three years of constant and tremendous changes, 2016 was a year to consolidate our league,
see Rulebook 2016.
2015 we introduced actual physical processing machines based on the Modular Production System (MPS)
requiring more complex machine handling. To accommodate the new machine working height, the
Robotino 3 will be the new major platform in the league (Robotino 2 are still allowed).Festo provides a
special offer for RoboCup participants for the new robot platform.
Additionally, the production schedule has again become more flexible and dynamic, by introducing color-
coded rings of which a varying number can be requested to be mounted in a specific order for a certain
product. This increased the number of products from 3 to about 240, see Rulebook 2015.
2014 we merged the formerly separate playing fields into a single one, on which both teams compete
at the same time, introducing the need for self-localization, dynamic collision avoidance, and increased
spatial coordination complexity. Additionally, the production schedules became more dynamic in that
orders were posted dynamically, see Rulebook 2014
2013 we introduced the Referee Box (refbox) changing the competition at its core by introducing a
flow of information. This allowed for more dynamic games and the automatic tracking of scores, and
to relax the hitherto existing regulations regarding additional computing power, see Rulebook 2013
2012 we had our forst official Logistics League competition, see Rulebook 2012.