Dynamic Switching of Formations

We implemented several different formations, ranging from very defensive (8-2-0) to very offensive (2-4-4). The full definitions of all of the formations are a part of the locker-room agreement. Therefore, they are all known to all teammates. However during the periods of full autonomy and low communication, it is not necessarily known what formation the rest of the teammates are using. Two approaches can be taken to address this problem:

• static formation - the formation is set by the locker-room agreement and never changes;
• run-time switch of formation - during team synchronization opportunities, the team sets globally accessible run-time evaluation metrics as formation-changing indicators.
• communication-triggered formation switch - one team member decides that the team should switch formations and communicates the decision to teammates.

The CMUnited-97 simulator RoboCup team used run-time formation switches. Based on the amount of time left relative to the difference in score: the team switched to an offensive formation if it was losing near the end of the game and a defensive formation if it was winning. Since each agent was able to independently keep track of the score and time, the agents were always able to switch formations simultaneously.

Communication-triggered formation switches have also been implemented and tested [23].