The new four-legged robot should have similar motion capabilities like the robot previously used in the Four-Legged Robot League to enable a large variety of legged gaits and ways of ball manipulation. Moreover the robot should enable several new types of motions which have not been able or not been favorable with the old robot design (like fast walking at low and high stance with optional head poses looking forward at high or low height above the ground or kicking the ball with the head underneath the robot to its back or viewing underneath the robot's torso to its back to see the world behind upside down).
With respect to speed of locomotion we think that the maximum walking speed of the robots in the current Four-Legged League with 40-50cm/s is fast enough for very interesting games. There s no need for much faster and gallopping robots (although this is an interesting challenge on its own). We think it will enable more diverse research opportunities if the overall motion and sensing capabilities of each robot are increased as in the robot design concept described here. If the field is to be increased it should not be done because the new robots have doubled their maximum walking speed but, e.g., because of the number of players.
The new camera offers an about ten times larger resolution of a much better image quality at up to 90 frames per second. Two gyroscopes enable further new research opportunities. A new gyroscope sensor measures the angular rate of the pitch motion of the camera head and enables research in the inertial stabilization of the field of view. Another new gyroscope measures the angular rate along the vertical axis of rotation of the torso and enables research into inertial navigation based on the values of the joint servo motors and the leg kinematics in combination with the values of the gyroscope.
The new robot is equipped also with well approved sensors, like a 3D body accelerometer to detect if the robot has fallen down and to which side, two infrared distance sensors (one in the head below the camera and the other in the robot's chest) and four push buttons on the robot's back.