• UCSD students placed in or above the farm area adjacent to your starting area score 1 point.
• UCSD students transferred through your mothership's loading zone score 3 points.
• Placing the UCSD VIP in or above the farm area earns 5 points, and transferring the VIP through your mothership's loading zone scores 15 points.
• Moving the VIP to your starting side of the playing field will serve as a tie breaker.
• Students can be abducted from any location on campus, and only the final location of the students at the end of the contest will contribute to points scored.

Key Rules

A complete list of rules is provided at the end of this document, and any clarifications to the rules will be posted at the end of this list throughout the quarter. However, some key rules are:

• The robot starting location is defined by a test box. This test box is approximately 12”x12”x12" and horizontally centered around the transport beam, with the utmost height being 4" above the beam. The starting area is offset by 0.25" from the mothership and the robot cannot touch the mothership in its starting location, but can touch the mothership later in the contest.
• Scoring will take place after the 1-minute contest, and all parts have stopped moving.
• Robot setup time on the contest table cannot exceed 2 minutes.
• Only the final location of the playing pieces will count, regardless of what robot touched the pieces.
• Manufacturing variations will exist between playing fields.  It is the team's responsibility to design a robot that will work on all contest tables.
• The robots will be arbitrarily assigned to start in either the right or left starting areas.
• Each robot must only be built out of kit parts described in a later section of this document.
• Robots can be made only from the kit parts listed later in this document.
• Robots must be built in the Design Studio only using Design Studio tools.
• The disassembled robot must be able to fit in the team's locker, where it must be stored.
• Robots may be designed to interact. However, it is not in the spirit of the competition to intentionally damage another machine and no part of the kit may be used in a manner that is intended to cause harm. Any device which is designed to chop, break, or penetrate another machine will not be allowed to compete. If you think your machine may be at risk for violating this rule, ask early before you build it! Applying forces onto an opposing team’s robot that are large enough to break plastic pasts, while the opposing robot is in its starting area, will be deemed to be intentional harm to an opponent and can lead to disqualification. However, blocking other robots or pushing other robots while attempting to score will generally be considered legal.
• Robots will compete in a head-to-head competition. However, operation of the robot without an opponent will be an important part of the robot grade.

Electrical Power

The robots must be powered solely from electrical power transferred through the power cord, and from potential energy stored in the robot at the start of the contest. The kit includes 2 geared DC motors, 3 non-geared DC motors, and one solenoid. Electrical power will be provided from a power supply with a maximum of 5VDC output. The power will be controlled by the following switches:  

Each switch is Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) switches, which can operate a DC motor in either direction. Note the kit contains five DC motors and one solenoid, but only four user controlled switches. More than one electrical device can be connected to a single switch, but the voltage may drop if a large current draw is placed on the power supply. Use of motors, solenoids, and switches will be covered in lecture and is described in the course pack.

Review the Power Supply and Multimeter Use carefully. Issues with the electrical power often occur with the Variable Voltage switches, since the maximum current output is less in these switches. The non-geared motors draw high current and startup problems may occur if multiple non-geared motors with high loads are tied to the variable voltage source!

• Clear 0.25" acrylic is for testing purposes. If a team uses clear acrylic or acrylic they purchased, they must demonstrate to their tutor that the could rebuild their robot from the original kit parts.
• The wire and string are serve your self, but are limited in length as noted.
•  The paper cover on the acrylic parts is not to be used as a separate part. If it is detached form the acrylic it must be discarded.

In addition to the kit parts listed in the table, the following items may be included in the machine:

• Nuts, bolts, and washers included in the Design Studio bin. These include bolts from size 2 to size 10, and metric screws for mounting the motors.
• Only take nuts and bolts from the bin as you need them, and search through the spare bolt bin before taking more (we went through $1,500 in fasteners last year!)
• Fasteners can be used only for fastening purposes, and thus must fasten at least two other parts together.
• Adhesives; including hot melt glue, and acrylic adhesive.
• Tape used ONLY for electrical insulation
• Lubricants used only to reduce friction within one's machine (not on the contest table).
• Nonfunctional decorations.

Replacement Material Policy