Rescue schedule on Two Arenas (Ver 2).
Posted by LI Shi at 2008-07-06 11:01:37; Last updated by LI Shi at
2008-07-06 11:47:30
Posted by Webmaster at 2008-01-23 12:30:47; Last updated by
Webmaster at 2008-01-23 12:32:58
Last updated: Friday 21st December 2007 by Ashley Green, Maverick
Luk, Eli Kolberg and Bill Freitas
Changes from 2007 rules are highlighted in red.
1. Arena.
1.1. Description:
1.1.1. The arena is modular. Each module can be thought of as a
"room" in a building. Modules may be placed adjacent to each other
(on the same level horizontally) or may be stacked vertically.
Modules on the same level are connected by level hallways. Modules
on different levels are connected by a sloping hallway or ramp. A
ramp will not exceed an incline of 25 degrees from the horizontal,
and must have walls at least 10 cm high.
Building plans are linked on this site (see sidebar).
1.2. Size:
1.2.1. Each module is approximately 122 cm by 91 cm (48 inches by 36
inches), with walls that are approximately 28 cm (11 inches) high.
1.3. Doorways:
1.3.1. Each room will have 2 doorways in standard locations (see
building plans). Robots will enter through one doorway and exit
through the other.
1.4. Floor:
1.4.1. The floor of each room will be a light colour (white, or
close to white). The floor may be either smooth or textured (like
linoleum or carpet),
and may have steps of up to 3 mm in height at joins between modules.
1.4.2. The arena should be placed so that the floors are level.
1.5. Line:
1.5.1. On the floor, there will be a black line for the robots to
follow. The black line will be made with standard electrical
(insulating) tape, 1 - 2 cm wide. The black line traces a maze on
the floor. It may have 90 degree turns in it, turns of other angles,
or curves. The line will never cross itself. The line will never
come closer than 10 cm to a wall or another line.
1.5.2. The black line will enter and exit each room through the
standard doorways. The line will continue along the hallways and
ramps so that it creates a single route through all the modules in
the arena. Any straight section of the black line running alongside
a wall (in a room or on a ramp) may have gaps of up to 30 cm in it.
A gap in the line may contain a victim.
1.6. Debris:
1.6.1. Debris may be located in the rooms (but NOT in a hallway or
on a ramp).
1.6.2. Any section of the black line that is further than 25 cm from
the nearest wall may have debris lying across it.
1.7. Graded difficulty:
1.7.1. It is recommended that the first room (the "Yellow Zone") in
the course should NOT contain any gaps or sharp turns in the black
line and should be free of debris.
1.7.2. It is recommended that subsequent rooms (the "Orange Zone"
and "Red Zone") in the course should be progressively more
difficult. (Note that the rooms themselves are NOT coloured. Yellow,
orange and red signify easy, intermediate and hard.)
1.7.3. The black line may end at the entrance to the last room (the
"Red Zone") in the course, so that robots are required to utilise
some form of search strategy to locate victims and the other doorway
(i.e. the exit and finishing line) in that room.
The floor of the room may be strewn with wooden sticks (e.g.
cocktail sticks or kebab skewers) less than 3 mm in diameter.
Victims may be located anywhere on the floor of that room, but must
each be at least 10 cm from the nearest wall.
1.7.4. The black line may end at the bottom of the ramp, so that the
ramp and upper level room/s comprise the "Red Zone".
1.8. Victims:
1.8.1. "Victims" will be located in random positions throughout the
course.
1.8.2. Two types of victim may be present:
1.8.2.1. Victims constructed out of green tape;
1.8.2.2. Victims constructed out of aluminized tape or aluminium
foil.
1.8.3. The victims will be adhered flat across the black line, or
flat on the floor when located in a gap or in the "Red Zone".
1.8.4. The reflectances (for
green light
at normal incidence) of the silver bodies, white (or close to white)
floor, green bodies and black line will be well separated, with the
following gradation: silver bodies (lightest) > floor > green bodies
> black line (darkest).
1.9. Lighting:
1.9.1. Teams must come prepared to calibrate their robots based on
the lighting conditions at the venue.
1.9.2. Lighting conditions may vary along the course in the rescue
arena.
1.10. Magnetic conditions:
1.10.1. Every effort will be made by the organizers to locate the
rescue arena away from magnetic fields such as underfloor wiring and
metallic objects. However, sometimes this cannot be avoided.
Hint:
It is recommended that teams design their robots to cope with
variations in lighting and magnetic conditions, as these vary from
venue to venue. Teams should come prepared to calibrate their robots
based on the conditions at the venue.
2. Robots.
2.1. Diameter:
2.1.1. The upright robot must fit inside an upright 22 cm diameter
cylinder.
2.1.2. Robots will be measured with all parts fully extended.
2.2. Height:
2.2.1. The robot height must not exceed 22 cm.
2.3. Control:
2.3.1. Robots must be controlled autonomously.
2.3.2. Robots must be started manually by humans.
2.3.3. The use of remote control of any kind is not allowed.
2.4. Team:
2.4.1. In each round, a single robot is deployed which must perform
its tasks autonomously. (In certain international competitions, this
rule can be modified such that two or more robots are deployed
together and have to cooperate in fulfilling the task. Check the
bylaws for the competition.)
2.5. Construction:
2.5.1. Any robot kit or building blocks, either available on the
market or built from raw hardware, may be used, as long as the robot
fits the above specifications and as long as the design and
construction are primarily and substantially the original work of
the students (see section below).
3. Inspection.
3.1. Schedule:
3.1.1. The robots will be examined by a panel of referees before the
start of the tournament to ensure that they meet the constraints
described above.
3.1.2. It is the responsibility of teams to have their robots
re-inspected if their robots are modified at any time during the
tournament.
3.2. Robot configuration:
3.2.1. While being inspected, each robot must be upright and at its
maximum size; i.e. anything that protrudes from the robot must be
fully extended.
3.3. Students:
3.3.1. Students will be asked to explain the operation of their
robot in order to verify that the construction and programming of
the robot are their own work.
3.3.2. Students will be asked questions about their preparation
efforts, and may be requested to answer surveys and participate in
video-taped interviews for research purposes.
3.4. Violations:
3.4.1. Any violations of the inspection rules will prevent that
robot competing until modifications are effected.
3.4.2. However, modifications must be made within the time schedule
of the tournament and teams must not delay tournament play while
making modifications.
3.4.3. If a robot fails to meet all specifications (even with
modification), the robot will be disqualified from that round (but
not from the tournament).
3.4.4. If there is excessive mentor assistance or the work on the
robots is not substantially original work by the students, then the
team will be disqualified from the tournament.
4. Play.
4.1. Pre-round setup:
4.1.1. Organizers will make every effort to provide the teams access
to the competition area for calibration, testing and tuning before
the start of the competition.
4.1.2. Organizers will make every effort to allow at least 5 minutes
of setup time before each round.
Hint:
Participants should be aware, however, that situations may arise
where these conditions cannot be met; and so participants should
arrive prepared to cope with conditions that are less than ideal.
4.2. Length of round:
4.2.1. Robots will be given a maximum time of 10 minutes to complete
the course. The time for each round will be kept by the referee.
4.3. Start of play:
4.3.1. To begin, the robot is placed at its starting location in the
doorway at the beginning of the black line.
4.3.2. Teams that are late for their starting time will forfeit the
round.
4.4. Humans:
4.4.1. In general, movement of robots by humans is not acceptable.
4.4.2. Humans can move robots only when told to do so by the
referee.
4.4.3. Before the start of each round, teams should designate one
human who will act as "captain", and be allowed to start the robot,
based on the stated rules and as directed by the referee.
4.4.4. Other team members (and any spectators) within the vicinity
of the rescue arena are to stand at least 60 inches (approximately
150 cm) away from the arena while their robot is active, unless
otherwise directed by the referee.
4.5. Objective:
4.5.1. The robots have to follow the black line and attempt to
complete the course through the entire arena.
4.5.2. Robots are rewarded for locating "victims" on the course.
4.5.3. Robots are rewarded for successfully negotiating gaps in the
black line.
4.5.4. Robots are rewarded for successfully avoiding items of debris
blocking the black line.
4.5.5. Robots are rewarded for successfully entering a room through
one doorway and exiting through the other doorway.
4.5.6. Robots are rewarded for successfully negotiating a ramp
without any assistance.
4.5.7. Robots are penalized for making false victim identifications
(i.e. indicating that they have found victims at locations where
there aren't any).
4.5.8. Robots are penalized for lack of progress (i.e. whenever
human intervention is required to enable them to resume progress
along the black line).
4.6. Lack of progress:
4.6.1. Lack of progress occurs if the robot is stuck in the same
place or loses the black line for more than 20 seconds.
4.6.2. In cases where lack of progress is due to the robot getting
stuck (e.g. oscillating forward and backward or turning in a circle)
at a victim or obstacle or getting caught on something (e.g. the
edge of a doorway), the referee may pick up the robot and place it
back onto the black line a little beyond the cause of the problem,
20 seconds after it first stopped making progress.
4.6.3. In cases where lack of progress is due to the robot losing
the black line at a sharp turn, gap, victim or obstacle, the referee
may pick up the robot and place it (20 seconds after it lost the
line) back onto the line a little beyond the
turn/gap/victim/obstacle, for it to attempt to complete the course.
4.6.4. In cases where a robot leaves the black line for no apparent
reason, the referee may pick up the robot (after 20 seconds) and
return it to the point where it left the line, for it to attempt to
complete the course.
4.6.5. The 20-second rule allows the robot some time to recover the
line or resume progress along it, without human intervention.
4.6.6. The referee will not turn off the robot or restart its
program.
4.6.7. A team may elect to stop the round early if the lack of
progress is caused by a faulty robot. In this case, the team captain
must indicate to the referee the team's desire to terminate. The
team will be awarded all points achieved thus far.
5. Scoring.
5.1. Victims:
5.1.1. Ten (10) points are awarded for each victim located by the
robot. The robot indicates that it has found a victim by stopping
and flashing a lamp for at least two (2) seconds.
5.1.2. Extra points are NOT awarded for the same victim being
located more than once.
5.2. Gaps in the black line:
5.2.1. Ten (10) points are awarded for each gap in the black line
that the robot successfully negotiates (i.e. recovers the line on
the far side of the gap).
5.3. Debris blocking the black line:
5.3.1. Ten (10) points are awarded for each item of debris blocking
the black line that the robot successfully avoids (i.e. moves around
the debris and recovers the line).
5.4. Rooms:
5.4.1. Ten (10) points are awarded for each room that the robot
navigates successfully (i.e. enters through one doorway and exits
through the other doorway).
5.5. Ramp:
5.5.1. Thirty (30) points are awarded for the robot successfully
negotiating a ramp without any assistance.
5.6. Penalties:
5.6.1. Two (2) points are deducted for each false victim
identification (i.e. whenever a robot indicates that it has found a
victim at a location where there isn't one).
5.6.2. Five (5) points are deducted for each lack of progress (i.e.
whenever human intervention is required to enable a robot to resume
progress along the black line).
6. Conflict resolution.
6.1. Tie breaks:
6.1.1. Ties in scoring will be resolved on the basis of the time
taken by each robot to complete the course.
6.2. Referee:
6.2.1. During game play, the referee's decisions are final.
6.3. Rule clarification:
6.3.1. Rule clarification may be made by members of the
RoboCupJunior International
Rescue
Technical Committee.
6.4. Special circumstances:
6.4.1. Specific modifications to the rules to allow for special
circumstances, such as unforeseen problems and/or capabilities of a
team's robot, may be agreed to at the time of the tournament,
provided a majority of the contestants agree.
7. Documentation.
7.1. Reporting:
7.1.1. All teams must bring written documentation describing their
preparation efforts.
7.2. Presentation:
7.2.1. Organizers will make every effort to allocate each team a
public space (approximately 90 cm by 130 cm) to display their
materials.
7.2.2 Since the public space available at the tournament venue could
be limited, teams are encouraged as an alternative to bring some
kind of electronic presentation in PowerPoint format.
7.2.3. Posters or electronic presentations should be made in an
interesting and entertaining format, as they may be viewed not only
by the judges, but also by other teams and the visiting members of
the public.
7.2.4. The presentation should provide information about the team
and how they prepared for RoboCupJunior. Areas that could be covered
include:
7.2.4.1. Team name;
7.2.4.2. Division (primary or secondary);
7.2.4.3. Team members' names and (perhaps) a picture of the team
members;
7.2.4.4. Team's country and location within country;
7.2.4.5. Team's school and district;
7.2.4.6. Pictures of the robot under development;
7.2.4.7. Information about the robot and team;
7.2.4.8. Any interesting or unusual features of the robot;
7.2.4.9. What the team hopes to achieve in robotics.
7.2.5. Officials will review the documentation and discuss the
contents with team members.
7.2.6. Prizes may be awarded to teams with outstanding
presentations.
7.3. Sharing:
7.3.1. Teams are encouraged to view one another's presentations.
8. Code of Conduct.
8.1. Fair Play:
8.1.1. Robots that cause deliberate damage to the arena will be
disqualified.
8.1.2. Humans that cause deliberate interference with robots or
damage to the arena will be disqualified.
8.1.3. It is expected that the aim of all teams is to participate
fairly.
8.2. Behaviour:
8.2.1. All movement and behaviour are to be of a subdued nature
within the tournament venue.
8.2.2.
Participants
are not to enter setup areas of other leagues or other teams, unless
expressly invited to do so by team members.
8.2.3. Participants who misbehave may be asked to leave the building
and risk being disqualified from the tournament.
8.2.4. These rules will be enforced at the discretion of the
referees, officials, tournament organizers and local law enforcement
authorities.
8.3. Mentors:
8.3.1. Mentors (teachers, parents, chaperones and other adult team
members) are not allowed in the student work area.
8.3.2. Sufficient seating will be supplied for mentors to remain in
a supervisory capacity around the student work area.
8.3.3. Mentors are not to repair robots or be involved in
programming of students' robots.
8.3.4. Mentor interference with robots or referee decisions will
result in a warning in the first instance. If this recurs, the team
will risk being disqualified.
8.4. Sharing:
8.4.1. An understanding that has been a part of world RoboCup
competitions is that any technological and curricular developments
should be shared with other participants after the competition.
8.4.2. Any developments may be published on the RoboCupJunior
website after the event.
8.4.3. This furthers the mission of RoboCupJunior as an educational
initiative.
8.5. Spirit:
8.5.1. It is expected that all participants (students and mentors
alike) will respect the RoboCupJunior mission.
8.5.2. The referees and officials will act within the spirit of the
event.
8.5.3. It is not whether you win or lose, but how much you learn
that counts!
Appendix.
Bylaws for RoboCup 2008 in Suzhou, China:
A1. Teams will be paired together to form multinational teams
("multi-teams") of two (2) robots, for half a day (3 hours) at a
time. Each team will contribute a robot to its multi-team (i.e. one
team cannot provide both robots).
A2. Both robots must start from the same location, at the entrance
to the first room (the "Yellow Zone") in the course. The faster
robot should be started first, followed by the slower robot after an
interval of at least thirty (30) seconds.
A3. The score for each multi-team will be the combined score for
their two robots (n.b. victims located by both robots will be
counted only once - see rule 5.1.2.). Both teams in the multi-team
will have that score added to their own (separate) cumulative scores
for the heats.
A4. In both the Primary and Secondary competitions, the twelve
individual teams that achieve the highest cumulative scores in the
heats will proceed to the finals on the last day of the
competitions.
A5. In both the Primary and Secondary competitions, prizes will be
awarded to the three individual teams that achieve the highest
cumulative scores in the heats, and to the three multi-teams that
achieve the highest scores in the finals.
A6. In both the Primary and Secondary competitions, a prize will be
awarded to the team with the best presentation.
http://robocup-cn.org/en/league_sub.php?subleague=Junior%20Rescue
Accessed 7Dec2008-12-07
www.DrGraeme.net - World RoboCup in Suzhou China International Rescue Rules.