The Falcons showed significant steps towards maturity at the Portuguese Open 2017. This year’s European championship featured a total of seven teams in the Middle Size League robot soccer competition. With surpassing their rival Carpe Noctem and claiming the third podium spot for themselves, the Falcons can look back on a very successful tournament.
Since the last World Championships in July, the team has shown sustained effort to improve both the hardware and software for the six soccer robots. For instance, a new world model (which keeps track of known objects on the field) has been developed, featuring enhanced localization and tracking of the robots, ball and obstacles. As the robots also drive more precisely, they are now able to properly pass the ball to each other autonomously. This proved necessary indeed, as a recently introduced rule obliges the robots to do at least one pass before being allowed to score.
