At the end of April the yearly "Portugese Open" Robotica kicked off in Porto. The ASML Falcons soccer robots participated in the Middle Size League competition. Unofficially, this tournament is considered the European Championship. Competing teams included the current World Champion Tech United, and the runner up Cambada.

The Falcons arrived with a team of 10 people, and no less than 7 robots: next to the Keeper with a new, actuated frame, the four normal field players and substitute robot, for the first time a robot based on our new motion platform was part of the team.

After 6 long days of coding, soldering and keeping our fingers crossed during the matches, we can look back on a very successful tournament: All the defined goals were achieved!

• Ranking: 3rd (behind Tech United and Cambada) - check!
• Play part of a game with a robot based on the new motion platform (Hardware and Software) - check!
• Introduce new keeper with actuated frame ("arms" to knock the ball away) - check!
• The RealTime DataBase used for inter-process communication proved stable during all matches - check!
• Multicam: proven stability of cameras and maintain localisation during fast turns - check!

Next to that, we have improved our goal scoring capability, scoring more than 10 goals in a single match for the first time! The stability of both hardware and software was again top notch, so the hours in between matches have been well spent on new developments, working on the simulator and of course the new motion platform.

Based on this result we have a clear improvements list to work on before the World Cup in Sydney, Australia this July; we are confidently and eagerly looking forward to defending ASML Falcons' honour there!