2015-2016 RARC Competition 1 - High School Guidelines - Page 1
Storyline There are over 50 land masses on the Earth that are uninhabited and, possibly, full of resources and treasures. Your team has been asked to explore one such land mass and discover its hidden assets. For your first adventure, travel as far and wide as you can surveying the land and gathering as many resources as possible. You will need them to sustain your team for the next two adventures. Adventure awaits! 2015-2016 RARC Competition 1 - High School Guidelines - Page 2
Competition General Rules Rules and Regulations The competition will only have one event: a robotics challenge with three rounds. Trophies will be awarded to the top three teams in each division (elementary, middle, and high school). Teams may accumulate points until time expires or the team captain calls TIME. The most points accumulated in the fastest time wins. If "TIME" is called and the bot is not in home base, no points will be awarded for resources that the bot possesses when "TIME" is called. Only the best score, along with its time, of the three rounds will be used for overall competition awards. Only student team members are allowed in robotics challenge areas. Team members must ensure that they do not block the judges view. In the event that the robot breaks down during the challenge, the team will not be given any extra time to fix the robot. The role of an adult is that of a facilitator and thus all work prior to and at the competitions should be the work of students and not adults. Adults are not allowed to use team computers or to touch robotics equipment during the competition. Teams who receive unauthorized aid will be disqualified. Teams are not allowed to program another team s robot or to maliciously modify another team s robot design or programming. Teams will be disqualified for these actions. The RARC committee makes every effort to provide a detailed set of rules for each competition. If you believe that a rule needs further clarification or that a detail might have been left out, please submit your questions/concerns prior to the competition at http://www.nicerc.org/events/rarc/coaches/questions/. The committee will then meet to clarify and make a final decision on the rules. These clarifications/decisions will be posted in the Competition Questions tab of the Coaches page. Coaches are responsible for verifying that all students have read and understand the rules of the competition. Remember that although some rules stay the same, others can change from competition to competition. Judges and RARC Committee members understand the need for fairness across all challenges. No video or photographic record made by judges, team coaches/parents, spectators or students of an event will be used for judging purposes. Robot Design Rules Teams may only utilize the Parallax Boe-Bot platform. Teams must use unmodified standard servo motors; no modifications to the servo motors are allowed. Use of high speed or modified servos will result in disqualification. Robots must be autonomous and may not be remotely controlled. Teams may not use any materials (for example: oil, glue, and tape) that may adversely impact another team s performance. All pieces, extensions, actuators, cables and any other items associated with that team s robot must fit within the home base. Things to keep in mind: Lighting conditions from mat to mat and location of mat can affect the performance of the robot. There might be bumps or uneven sections under the mat. The mats may not lose their waviness even if rolled out ahead of time at the competition location. Mats might be taped using painter s tape at the edges to keep them in place. 2015-2016 RARC Competition 1 - High School Guidelines - Page 3
Robotics Challenge Rules Teams will be allowed three runs (rounds) of the robotics challenge. Teams will have time in between rounds to work on their robots or programming in the pit area but the amount of time might depend on other factors so keep this in mind while you are in the pit area. Before Play Robots must start the round in home base and no part of the robot, game pieces or alignment guides may extend past the base boundaries before the start of the round or when resetting the field. All team members except for the team captain (in charge of interacting with the robot) and a maximum of two helpers must step away from the competition mat before the round begins. For the purposes of this competition, resources will be simulated using medium size ACCO binder clips (#72050). Judges will place 15 resources as marked on the layout diagram found on page 6. During Play Teams will have a maximum of 1 minute 30 seconds from when the judge announces GO to complete the tasks of the challenge. Once the robot crosses the home base boundary, the round continues until 1 minute 30 seconds have elapsed or the team captain calls TIME. Students may interact with the robot without penalty while the robot is located within home base. (Collect resources from the bot, reprogram, etc.) The round is over when time stops, and teams may not restart the round. Touch penalty: teams incur a -30 point penalty each time the bot is touched outside of home base during play, and time does not stop or restart during a touch penalty. Any resource the bot has collected and not in home base must be forfeited and will not count toward the team's final score. After Play Scoring will be conducted electronically, and team captains are encouraged to review their teams score sheets with the mat judge. In order to increase the accuracy of the scoring, only the end state of the field will be scored. In the event that paper score sheets are used, team captains will need to bring their teams score sheets to the scorekeeper s table for tabulation. Points will be awarded only for resources located inside home base when time has expired or the team captain has called TIME. No video or photographic record, made by judges, team coaches/parents, spectators or students of an event will be used for judging purposes. The robot is considered to have touched, crossed, in or on a boundary line, or exited the competition mat if at least part of the bot is touching or is inside of the boundary of the required field. See graphic to the right. 2015-2016 RARC Competition 1 - High School Guidelines - Page 4
Resource Retrieval Scoring Tasks Checklist Objective: Retrieve the resources (medium size binder clips) and deliver them to home base. Resource point values will vary, increasing in point value with the distance from home base. See map on page 6 for point values of each resource. Bot may be touched in home base. Resources may be collected from bot in home base. Bot may return to home base to drop off resources and return to the field to collect more resources as long as time allows. Bot may be reprogrammed while in home base. Only resources in home base when TIME is called or 1 minute 30 seconds has passed will be counted toward the final score. Resources will be positioned with the flat black end on the mat and the silver clips together and upright. Penalties -30 points for each time that the students touch the robot outside of home base - the bots must be returned to home base each time that this occurs. -30 points for each time the robot leaves the road - the bots must be returned to home base each time that this occurs. A bot is considered to have left the road when neither of the drive wheels are touching the white road surface. If the bot is touched or leaves the road, it will incur the penalty. Any resource the bot has collected and not in home base must be forfeited and will not count toward the team's final score. * - Run is over after 1 minute 30 seconds have elapsed or the team captain calls TIME from when the judge announces GO. Additional Supplies Needed for Competition QTI or IR sensor The resources will be simulated using 15 medium size ACCO binder clips (#72050). Competitions 2 and 3 will require additional sensors. These competitions will utilize a color sensor such as the Parallax ColorPAL and a temperature sensor such as the Parallax DS1620 Digital Thermometer. 2015-2016 RARC Competition 1 - High School Guidelines - Page 5
Field Layout and Description The same vinyl competition mat will be used for all competitions in the 2015-2016 circuit. The competition mat can be purchased through StickersBanners.com. More information on ordering mats can be found on the RARC website at http://www.nicerc.org/events/rarc/coaches/mats/. Robots may start anywhere within the base which is an area that is 12 inches deep and 12 inches wide but bot and its components or attachments must fit within the boundaries ( see page 4 for a diagram ). Resource Retrieval The purpose of this competition is for teams to build a robot that is able to collect as many resources (medium binder clips) within the 1 minute and 30 second round. Each team will be given 1 minute and 30 seconds to collect as many resources as possible. Each resource will be placed within each solid black rectangle. Each resource (binder clip) will have a different point value as denoted by number value in the diagram above. 2015-2016 RARC Competition 1 - High School Guidelines - Page 6
Overall competition points possible 1020 Overall Competition Scoring Tie: Time will be used as the deciding factor. In the event that multiple top teams (1 st 3 rd ) have the same scores and time, a tiebreaker robotics performance round will be conducted between those teams that have the same scores and time in order to appropriately place each team. Note: The highest score of the three runs (including the time of that particular run) will be the one that is used for placement purposes, i.e., time and points are not independent of each other. 2015-2016 RARC Competition 1 - High School Guidelines - Page 7
Thank you to the RARC partners: and all of the RARC committee members 2015-2016 RARC Competition 1 - High School Guidelines - Page 8