Let Your Robot Go – Challenges of a Decentralized Remote Robot Competition

Holding an international robot competition, such as the RoboCup, usually requires many people and their robots to come together in one place for several days. In case of international travel restrictions, such an event cannot take place in its intended way. In this paper, we describe the German Open Replacement Event (GORE), a robot tournament for RoboCup Standard Platform League teams, which was organized in a decentralized way and required remote participation. Furthermore, we provide insights into the specific technical and scientific challenges the participating teams had to face, along with an outlook on implications for future robot competitions.