Return-Path: robot-board@oberon.com Received: by media.mit.edu (5.57/DA1.0.4.amt) id AA08286; Thu, 14 Oct 93 11:13:02 -0400 Received: from ([127.0.0.1]) by oberon.com (4.1/SMI-4.1_Armado.MX) id AA03331; Thu, 14 Oct 93 11:00:51 EDT Date: Thu, 14 Oct 93 11:00:51 EDT Message-Id: <9310141456.aa04578@APG-9.APG-9.APG.ARMY.MIL> Errors-To: gkulosa@oberon.com Reply-To: mpeck@APG-9.APG.ARMY.MIL Originator: robot-board@oberon.com Sender: gkulosa@oberon.com Precedence: bulk From: "Mary K. Peck, CSTA Ammunition Manager" To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Science Center of CT Contest Rules X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0b -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Howdy, fellow robot-builders.... Here's the rules for the _Science Center of Connecticut_ Robot Contest, to be held in April, 1994. I thought y'all East-Coasters might be interested in competing, and everybody else might just like to read them... Jake Mendelssohn of the _Science Center_ enthusiastically permitted me to post these rules, with the following caveats: 1. Appendix A, containing the floorplan for the "house" is not included. (He's not being nasty, he just doesn't have the time to do the ascii artwork. There are a lot of dimensions on the drawing.) 2. Any interested persons should contact the _Science Center_ for more info. Registrants will be on the mailing list for updates as time progresses. The address: Science Center of Connecticut 950 Trout Brook Dr. West Hartford, CT 06117 Contact Jake Mendelssohn, (203)231-2824, Fax (203)232-0705 Prodigy:KJRP71A < Soapbox mode> Registering is a good idea - the rules and floorplan were recently revised, and the definition of "kits" was explained - yes Mini-boards and 6.270 boards ARE allowed!. Jake said they'll send out travel info when it gets down toward contest day, too. < Soapbox off> I must add my own administrivia: I, and my boss, the Army, have no affiliation with this contest. I'm just another robot hobbyist! Helpful Hint: _Robot Builders Bonanza_ has a whole chapter dedicated to fire detection.... Now back to my new 6.270 boards! Happy 'bot building, everybody! - peckster - Mary K. Peck, Ammunition Manager mpeck@apg-9.apg.army.mil Combat Systems Test Activity Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5059 -------- 8x --------- CUT HERE ------- 8x -------- CUT HERE -------- 8x -------- SCIENCE CENTER OF CONNECTICUT Official 1994 Robotics Contest Rules and Regulations 9/15/93 1. CONTEST OBJECTIVE To build a computer controlled Robot that can move through a model floor plan structure of a house, find a lit candle and then extinguish it in the shortest time subject to a few operating factors (see Scoring section). This is meant to simulate the real-world operation of a Robot performing a fire security function in a actual home. The candle represents a fire which has started in the home and which the Robot must find and then put out. 2. THE HOUSE FLOOR PLAN STRUCTURE The official floor plan structure contest area is shown in Appendix A. This is exactly what the contest structure will look like. This is not a maze contest where the Robot has to figure out how to move through the structure. The design of the structure will be known before hand (see Appendix A) and the goal is to find and extinguish the candle as quickly as possible. The walls of the structure will be made of wood and will be 1 inch thick and 13 inches high. The walls will be painted with a white semi-gloss paint. The floor of the house will be a smooth (no ridges), high friction surface. As noted in the Appendix A floor plan, all hallways and doorways to room will be 18 inches wide. There will not be a door in the doorways, just an 18 inch opening. The Robot will start at the Home location marked by the H in a circle. The floor plan is level with no ramps or stairs. The ambient light level in the contest area is impossible to determine until the actual day of the contest. Contestants will be given time on the contest day to make ambient light level readings if necessary to calibrate their Robot. The room lighting will be overhead, but there may be lights associated with video cameras recording the contest that may cast shadows in the structure area. The floor of the house will be black. There will be a white line 1" wide painted on the floor across each doorway to indicate the entrance to each room. The Home area will be a white 12" diameter circle. 3. ROBOT OPERATION Once turned on the Robot must be self-controlled without any human intervention, that is, these are to be computer controlled and not manually controlled devices. The Robot can bump into or touch the walls of the house as it travels, but it can not mark or damage the walls in doing so. The Robot can not leave anything behind as it travels through the house. It can not make any marks on the floor of the house as it travels. The Robot must, in the opinion of the official judges, have found the candle before it attempts to put it out. The Robot must find the candle before it puts it out. The Robot can not just flood the house structure with CO2 and put out the candle out by accident. 4. PUTTING OUT THE CANDLE The Robot must not use any destructive or dangerous methods to put out the candle. It can use such items as water, air, CO2, Halon, etc., but any method or material that is dangerous or will damage the house is prohibited. For example, the Robot can not explode a firecracker and put the candle out with the concussion. The Robot can not knock the candle over to put it out. The candle can not be knocked over while it is still lit. If a Robot accidentally knocks over a candle after it has been put out then it is all right and the Robot's trial run will count. The candle will be mounted on a weighted base so that it will not be easily knocked over by moving air or water. Any mess that a Robot makes (water, whipped cream, Carminic Acid, etc.) in its effort to put out the candle will be cleaned up by the judges to the best of their ability between trials. 5. ROBOT SIZE The maximum size of the Robot shall be 12" by 12" by 12". The Robot can not look over the walls of the structure and must never extend itself beyond 12 inches in height. If contestants want to add a flag, hat or other purely decorative, non-functional items to the Robot, they may do so as long as the item does not exceed 12 inches in any dimension and has absolutely no effect on the operation of the Robot. 6. ROBOT WEIGHT There are no restrictions on the weight of the Robot. If a contestant wants to build the Robot out of Depleted Uranium, it is all right. (This reference to DU is meant as a joke, not as an inducement to raid a military armory.) 7. ROBOT CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS There are no restrictions on the type of materials used in the construction of the Robot, except that the Robot must be designed and constructed by the contestants and can not consist of a commercially available product or kit or a modification of a commercially available product or kit. This does not mean that the Robot could not be constructed from commercially available materials and parts, but just that the final Robot itself can not be a product or kit. Contestants can not submit a Robot built from the Acme Robot kit #5, but they can build the Robot out of any available construction kits such as Lego or Fischertechnik. How much of the Robot can be from a pre-made commercially available kit? This is actually not as much of a problem as it might first seem. First of all, there is no kit available to build a Robot that will perform all the contest objectives, so no one can just enter a built kit. There are, however, kits to build moving bases and microprocessor systems. In the most extreme case a person could build a moving base from a kit and attach it to a microprocessor also built from a kit. They would still have to design the hardware system to navigate through the house, detect the candle and finally put it out. They would also have to write the software to perform all of these functions. This Robot would be legal under these rules because, even though it was built from a few kits, the builder still had to do substantial work themselves. 8. THE CANDLE The lit candle is supposed to represent a small house fire that the Robot is attempting to find and put out. The candle will be between 6 and 8 inches in height. The candle will start out at 8 inches tall and when in the course of the contest's many trials, it burns down to 6 inches it will be replaced by a new 8 inch candle. The candle used will be a standard thin emergency candle. The flame will be visible from the side and not hidden by unmelted wax as with thick candles. The height and size of the flame is unknown and will be determined by the candle and its surrounding conditions. The candle will be placed at random in one of the room in the house. The candle will not be placed in a hallway. The candle will be put in a different room for each of the 3 trials. 9. SENSORS There is no restrictions on the type of sensors that can be used as long as they do not violate any of the other rules or regulations. Robot builders should be aware that many modern film and video cameras transmit infrared light as part of their automatic focusing system. If their Robots use infrared sensors to find the candle or detect walls or furniture, they should take steps to prevent these infrared sources from interfering with its operation. 10. ELECTRICITY The maximum electrical requirements for any system needing electrical connection will be 20 amps at 120 VAC. 11. CABLES If the Robot is connected to an external computer system for instructions and/or power make sure that the cable is long enough for the Robot to get to all areas of the structure. The cable can either be dragged behind the Robot as it travels through the structure or it can be held above the walls by one of the impartial judging officials. 12. BEGINNING EACH TRIAL (the Chomak rule) This is the procedure for beginning each trial run of the Robot through the house structure: 1. The contestants will have 5 minutes before each trial to get their Robot ready to begin. They can make any modifications to the hardware and/or software within those five minutes, but they must begin at the end of that time period. The clock will start on the time for that trial run whether the Robot is actually ready or not. 2. Once the Robot is ready, the location of the candle and any furniture, if necessary, shall be determined and the candle and the furniture shall be put in the proper locations. 3. The contestants will show a judge how to actuate the Robot and then the judge will actually press whatever buttons necessary to start the Robot. 13. THE SCORING The Robot with the lowest operating score will be the winner. There are 4 different factors which can effect the final score depending on which of the operating modes the contestants choose for their Robot. The operating score (OS) will be determined by multiplying the time score (TS) by the operating mode factors. The basic method of determining the operating score is running in the Standard Operation. There are then 4 factors which can reduce the Time Score to give a lower Operating Score. They are the Sound Activation, Return Trip, Untethered, and Furniture modes. STANDARD OPERATION The Robot is tethered to an external PC computer or other system with a cable and receives power and/or instructions from that computer system. The Robot operates in the house structure with no obstructions other than the walls. The Robot is activated (starts to search for the candle) by manually starting it. After finding the candle and extinguishing it, the Robot stays where it is. In this mode, the time in seconds for the Robot to find and extinguish the candle is the operating score. ( OS = TS ) SOUND ACTIVATION Instead of being manually activated, the Robot activates itself when it detects a 3.5 kHz sound signal (a Radio Shack #273-075 in continuous mode). There will be a 5% reduction in time for a Robot operating in this mode. ( OS = .95 x TS ) RETURN TRIP After extinguishing the candle, the Robot returns to the Home base. It does not have to retrace its path in returning to the Home base or even take the most efficient route, it just must get back. The time score will include just the time the Robot takes to find and extinguish the candle. It will not include the time for the Robot's return trip to the Home base. Operating in this mode will result in a 10% reduction in the time score. ( OS = .90 x TS ) UNTETHERED Instead of being tethered with a wire to an external computer, the Robot is controlled by its own internal microprocessor or connected to an external computer via a radio link. There will be no wires connecting the Robot to the outside world. Operating in this mode will give a 40% reduction in the time score. ( OS = .60 x TS ) FURNITURE In this mode there will be one piece of furniture in each room. The furniture will be placed at random in the rooms. The Robot may touch the furniture, but it can not push or damage the pieces. The furniture will be represented by 4 inch diameter steel cylinders, painted semi-gloss yellow. The cylinders will be 12 inches high and weight at least 5 pounds. Successfully operating in this mode will result in a 50% reduction in the time score. ( OS = .50 x TS ) 14. SCORING EXAMPLES If Robot A competes in the Standard Mode and puts out the candle in 3 minutes and 20 seconds, the operating score would be the time in seconds or 200. If Robot B competes in the Sound Activation Mode and puts out the candle in 3 minutes and 30 seconds then its operating score would be the time in seconds less 5% for being in the Sound Activation Mode or .95 x 210 or 199.5 If Robot C competes in the Furniture Mode and puts out the candle in 6 minutes and 30 seconds then its score will be the time in seconds less 50% for operating in the Furniture Mode or .5 x 390 or 195. Thus in this example Robot C would have the best score even though it took the longest actual time. Robot B would be second and Robot A would be third. But if Robot A were just 6 seconds faster, then it would have had the best score. It will also be possible to combine modes. Thus if Robot D operated in the Untethered and Return Trip mode its score would be (.60 x .90) or 54% of its actual time in seconds. ( OS = .60 x .90 x TS ) This scoring procedure is designed to try to allow Robot entries of all different levels of sophistication to compete in the same contest. Anyone can win. Each Robot will have 3 chances to find and extinguish the candle. The Robot can operate under different modes during each trial. The candle and any furniture, if necessary, will be moved to different locations for each trial. The lowest total of the two best scores from the three trials shall be used to determine the winner. 15. SAFETY The contest judges may stop any Robot at any time if they feel that it is performing or is about to perform any action that is dangerous or hazardous to people or equipment. No Robot is allowed to use any flammable or combustible processes. 16. PRIZES All Robot entries will receive an award. There will be cash prizes given to the first 10 winners. The top winner will receive a $1,000 prize. In the event of a tie, the prize money for the tying positions will be split among the tying entries. 17. INTERPRETING THE RULES In all matters of interpreting these rules before and during the contest, the decisions of the judging committee appointed by the Science Center of Connecticut will be final. 18. WHO CAN ENTER There are no restrictions as to who can enter a Robot. Although most Robot entries will be submitted by individuals, there is no limit on the number of people, who as a group, can submit a Robot entry. Only one prize will be given to each winning Robot entry. The group can divide it up themselves as they see fit. 19. ENTRY FEE A non-refundable fee of $10 is required for each Robot entered into the contest. Please make the checks payable to the Science Center of Connecticut and staple the check to the entry form. 20. REGISTRATION DEADLINE Registrations along with payment of the $10 fee must be postmarked by March 15, 1994. However to get all the latest information on the contest and any rule modifications and/or clarifications, contestants should register as early as possible. 21. LOCATION AND DATE The contest will be held at the Science Center of Connecticut, 950 Trout Brook Drive, West Hartford, CT 06117 on Sunday April 17, 1994. 22. RULE UPDATES If there are any questions, concerning the interpretation of these rules or any things that may have been left out, please contact Jake Mendelssohn at the Science Center for a clarification before Robot construction progresses too far. Updates and clarifications of the rules will be sent to all Officially Registered Contestants as they are developed. 23. UPDATED INFORMATION All Official Registrants will be kept update as to any rule changes and/or modifications that should arise between now and the contest. We will also send the registrants more specific information about the schedule of activities on the actual weekend of the contest. The only way to be kept informed is to register - so register your Robot entry today. --------------------------------------------------------------------- REGISTRATION FORM This form must be filled out and signed by each person who is submitting a Robot entry. Name Address City, State, ZIP Day Phone Night Phone FAX How did you hear of this contest? I hereby grant to the Science Center of Connecticut the non-restrictive use of any photographs and/or video tape footage taken throughout the course of the Robot contest for which I am registering. Signature Date: ______________________________________________________________________ Be sure to attach a check for the $10 entry fee for each Robot being entered in the contest. This form may be photocopied and a copy of this signed form must be submitted for each Robot entry. Make the $10 entry fee check payable to: Science Center of Connecticut and send to: Jake Mendelssohn, Science Center of Connecticut, 950 Trout Brook Drive, West Hartford, CT 06119 -------- 8x --------- CUT HERE ------- 8x -------- CUT HERE -------- 8x --------