What are they talking about?

Common robocup terms + slang, jargon, etc

Technical Terms:

"B-Human"

A really good German RoboCup team. ("A collegiate project at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Bremen.") Google B-Human to find out more or search YouTube for videos of them playing soccer. Elements of our behavior/motion systems are modeled after the B-Human team.

"Bill Silver"

Co-founder of a machine vision company "Cognex"

"Branch"

A feature of Git, our source control management system. A branch is an alternate version of the codebase with a development history that differs from the main history.

"Button Presses"

The NAO has a big button on its chest! If you press that button several times in rapid succession, the robot will do different things like switching game state, turning off joint stiffnesses, or print out information to the terminal. We have a guide to button presses, listed here.

"Comm"

Communication between players are essential for Robocup success. Our robots communicate information like current position (among other things) over WiFi. Comm is an abbreviation for the communications system.

"Codebase"

All the code that has ever been written for Robocup. The code is stored on Github, which, if you're reading this wiki right now, should already be familiar to you.

"Chown"

The elusive Professor Eric Chown is our Faculty Advisor. See Chown's Bowdoin page for more info

"Flashing"

It's not what you think. Robots, when sent off to Aldebaran (the manufacturer), return with factory settings on the robot's memory. We have to reinstall Northern Bites' code to the robot. As we're installing the code, the chest button flashes, hence the name.

"Flipped"

Robots try to keep an accurate estimate of its current location on the field at all times. It uses visual landmarks like field lines to keep this estimate up to date. However, since the Robocup playing field is symmetrical, a robot might sometimes think it's located on the other side of the field. This leads to own goals and other generally bad behavior. This occasionally will happen in real soccer as well.

"GameController"

Refers to either a piece of software or the person running the software. During a game, robots communicate with a master computer running the GameController software. Through this software, the game controller (the person) can send commands to robots (to put a specific robot in penalty, for example). Robots can also glean information from the GameController (the software) like time remaining in a half, or the current score.

"Git"

Git is a free and open source distributed version control system. Robocup uses it to maintain code history, develop features without altering the working version, and synchronize code between different computers. Git is a complicated topic; to learn more, visit Learning Git.

"Github"

Github is a website that stores Git repositories remotely. Currently, you're looking at the Northern Bites git repository stored on Github. Github also includes bonus features like an issue management system and a wiki (you are here!). Github has a bunch of reference documents to help you learn about Git and Github. Check them out to learn more.

"Localization"

Localization is a common problem among autonomous robots: how do we know where we are in space? We have an entire system of our codebase devoted to figuring out where our robots are on the field.

"Make"

The command we use to compile our code and set compilation options.

"Man"

Just as your computer runs applications like iTunes or Google Chrome, the robots run applications that make it play soccer. The main application it runs is called "Man."

"Man's not running"

When the Man application is not running, we have to make sure it launches because otherwise the robot doesn't know how to do anything. We have to log into the robot and force it to start.

"Nao"

The Naos are humanoid robots that we use for RoboCup. They are made by the company Aldebaran. About Nao

The Naos have a computer in their head that runs a very lightweight version of Linux.

"Pushing (during a game)"

When one robot pushes another robot during a game, that robot gets penalized. You can read more about pushing in the rules

"Pushing (Git)"

Our code has to be synchronized with Github in order to share it with other people and put it on robots. The command we use to synchronize code with the server is git push; when we "push code" we are pushing it from our computer onto the server.

"Python Crash"

The source of one of the team's biggest headaches. Since we write Behaviors in Python and Python uses an interpreter instead of a compiler, you have to run every single line of new behaviors code in order to properly test it and find errors. This means a robot can crash during run time - but don't worry, as of October 2016 the robot will also tell you if you turn on TTS. P.S. It's probably a spelling error.

"Repository"

"Robot"

Robot? Robot.

"Scrimmage"

Essentially a "test game" where we play our robots against each other. Usually done to test new features or to show off!

"SSH"

A UNIX command to access one computer remotely from another computer. Since our robots run Linux, we can log into them using this standard tool and control the robots from our computer since the robots don't have a screen or keyboard built into them.

"SPL"

The Standard Platform League: the league of Robocup (the international organization) the Northern Bites belong to. About 30 teams from about 10 different countries are part of the SPL, and we compete with them in opens or during the main competition.

"Sweet Moves"

Along with the motion engine, we can tell the robot to go to a specific set of joint angles with a certain timing. These preprogrammed actions are called sweet moves because they're super sweet.

"Taking a log"

Using a robot to take pictures (of field/ball/etc.) that will later be used to test what the robot thinks it is seeing. (See How to Take a Log)

"Terminal"

"Tool"

"Ubuntu"

Is the a Linux operating system that we use for RoboCup See: Installing Linux

"US Open"

"Vision"

"V5/V4/V3"

Refers to the version of robot.

Just for fun

"Bandicoot"

"China Rose"

"Robo-Social"

Computer nerds try to pretend that they have fun like "regular people." Usually ends up with us all watching sweet videos of robots doing things.

"She-man/Bat-hulk"

What happened when we took she-hulk's body and put it on Batman and visa-versa @ US open 2015