Parsian SSL AI

Parsian SSL AI is the autonomous soccer software used by the Parsian Robotics Lab for the RoboCup Small Size League (SSL). It combines the game model, strategy and play selection, robot skills, motion planning, vision and referee communication, logging, and the interfaces needed to control a team of robots.

This is a legacy C++/Qt codebase. It is kept here as a reproducible snapshot of the team software and includes the source of ssl-visual-planner directly in the repository.

What is included

• ai.pro: qmake project for the main AI application (ai)
• mainapplication.cpp and soccer.cpp: application and match lifecycle
• worldmodel.cpp, visionclient.cpp, and net/: world state and SSL network communication
• plays/, plans/, roles/, skills/, and behaviours/: tactical and behavioural layers
• simulation/: simulation connection and simulator support
• proto/: checked-in Protocol Buffers sources used by SSL and robot messages
• ssl-visual-planner/: the vendored visual planner application
• fedit2/: supporting field-editor/simulation code
• PlansConfigs.json, profiler files, lookup tables, and training data: example runtime and development data

Requirements

The main application was developed and tested on Ubuntu 14.04 and later. Its original toolchain is:

• C++ compiler and make
• Qt 4.8 or later, including Network, OpenGL, XML, Script, and SQL modules
• OpenGL development libraries and a working graphics driver
• Protocol Buffers development tools and libraries
• Boost, Eigen, QJSON, ODE, and libdc1394 development packages
• VarTypes 0.6 and 0.7, including its development headers and libraries

The dependency list is historical and this project may require compatibility work on current Linux distributions. install.sh installs the system packages and builds VarTypes from its Parsian repository; review it before running it because it uses sudo and installs system-wide libraries.

The bundled visual planner is a separate Qt application and uses Qt 5.4 or later. Its own build files and documentation are in ssl-visual-planner/.

Build the main AI

Install the requirements, then build from the repository root:

qmake -r ai.pro
make -j"$(nproc)"

On systems where the Qt 4 executable is named qmake-qt4, use:

qmake-qt4 -r ai.pro
make -j"$(nproc)"

The resulting executable is ./ai. Generated Protocol Buffers sources are already present under proto/; a separate protobuf generation step is not normally needed for the main project.

Run

Simulation

Start the application and select Simulation from the application menu, or run the executable directly and use the simulation controls exposed by the GUI. Confirm that the simulator and any required network services are running before starting a match.

Real robots

start.bash repeatedly launches the application in real mode:

./start.bash

Equivalent one-shot invocation:

./ai mode real ref s

Do not use real mode unless the robot network, SSL-Vision feed, referee connection, radio/robot interfaces, and emergency-stop procedure have been checked. The application installs signal handlers intended to halt robots and save runtime state on termination, but those handlers are not a substitute for an independent emergency stop.

The ref argument selects the startup referee state. The GUI can also switch between simulation and real operation and expose coach controls after startup.

Logs and data

Runtime logs are written to logs/. To initialize the separate logs working directory and its remote, run:

./add-logs.sh

The application also uses configuration, plan, profiler, and training files in the repository. Avoid committing match logs, generated build output, local hardware settings, or credentials unless they are intentionally part of a reproducible experiment.

Development workflow

1. Build and test in simulation before connecting real hardware.
2. Make tactical changes in the relevant plays/, plans/, roles/, or skills/ area and keep communication changes in net/ or proto/.
3. Record bugs and proposed work in the issue tracker before larger changes; see CONTRIBUTING.md.
4. Include the build command, runtime mode, simulator or hardware setup, and relevant logs when reporting a problem.

Related tools

• RoboCup Small Size League: competition context
• SSL-Vision: vision system
• grSim: simulator commonly used with SSL software
• ssl-visual-planner: bundled plan editor and visual planner

License and provenance

This repository contains legacy team software and historical third-party code. Check the relevant source files and bundled project documentation for the licensing terms that apply before redistributing it.