GSA Special Prize

Detailed rules

Next to ERL Emergency 2019 competition arena, there will be a specific place in which teams can perform this special prize’s tasks. The teams may use an air and/or a land robot to participate in the different tasks. The robots must hover and/or land on a specific target position with the maximum possible accuracy.

Previous considerations

1. Two different prizes are defined: one for air robots and another one for land robots. A team may participate in both or just one of the prizes.
2. The robots must start from a predefined zone called Starting Zone, which will be marked in the arena.
3. The robots can only be equipped with an EGNOS and/or Galileo enabled receiver to be used as the positioning source. No other sensors are allowed for navigation (i.e. cameras…).
4. Organizers will provide geographic coordinates of the target position and the hovering height to the teams prior to the beginning of the Challenge.
5. A visual marker with the shape of a circular target will be centered in the target position in order to measure the horizontal accuracy. Please check slide 30 in our presentation for an example, which must not be assumed as the final marker.
6. Next to the target position, there will be a vertical sign with markers around the designated hovering height to measure the vertical accuracy. Please check slide 29 in our presentation for an example, which must not be assumed as the final sign.
7. Teams must indicate to the judges which is the mass center of their robots before the beginning of the Challenge. This center will be used as reference to measure the accuracy with respect to the target position.
8. The system must run in a fully autonomous mode. Once the teams have commanded the target position to the robot, both the safety pilot/robot operator and the ground station operator will not be allowed to operate the robot (“hands off”) until the judges determine the attempt has finished.
9. Each team will be assigned timeslots (their duration will depend on the number of participants). For any given timeslot, each team will attempt to complete the Challenge as many times as they want. Each attempt must start at the Starting Zone.
10. Teams are allowed to use a different robot for each attempt within a given timeslot.
11. Before each attempt, the team is allowed to turn on their Ground Station or any other supporting ground equipment. Power can be applied to robots prior to each attempt.
12. An attempt is considered finished if the timeslot ends up. Additionally, an attempt is considered finished if:
    • The Ground Station operator / safety pilot declares ending the attempt.
    • The Ground Station operator / safety pilot takes control of the robot.
    • The robot malfunctions.
    • The robot trajectory moves away from the position target.
13. The judges reserve the right to stop any team’s attempt if considered dangerous or not following the guidelines. Also, the judges reserve the right to rule out any attempt’s record if any unfair activity is found (e.g. obtains information not open to all teams, human intervention detected afterwards and so on).
14. It is the sole power of the judges to decide the accuracy measurement of each attempt.

Land robots prize: procedure and scoring

Each team participating in the land robot prize must be made up of at least a land robot, a computer (Ground Station), a robot operator and a Ground Station operator. The team must command the target position (where a circular marker is located) to the robot, and the robot must navigate to that position and stop autonomously.

Scoring will be based on the horizontal accuracy to reach the waypoint. The accuracy assessment will be based on the position of the mass center of the robot with respect to the center of the target. The closer it is to the center, the more points the team will get. For instance, based on the previously shown figure of the marker, if the mass center of a team robot is in the central circle of the marker, the team will score 5 points. Depending on the proximity of the concentric circle where the robot mass center is with respect to the marker center, the team will score with 4, 3, 2 or 1 point. If the robot’s mass center is outside the marker, the score will be 0 points.

Each team’s final score will be selected from the best attempt in any of the assigned timeslots. If there are several teams obtaining the same scoring based on their best attempt, the tiebreaker will be based on their second-best attempt and so on.

Air robots prize: procedure and scoring

Each team participating in the air robot prize must be made up of at least a drone, a computer (Ground Station), a safety pilot and a Ground Station operator. The team must command the target position and hovering height to the drone. Then, the drone must navigate to that position, where a circular marker and a vertical sign are located, hover at the specified height during at least 10 seconds, and then land on the horizontal coordinate in an autonomous way. The team will request the judges when to start this hovering period of 10 seconds for the attempt evaluation.

Scoring will be based on both horizontal and vertical accuracy. The attempt scoring will be calculated as the average scoring between the vertical and horizontal scoring.

• The vertical accuracy assessment will be based on the hovering height of the air robot before it lands. Next to the waypoint, there will be a vertical sign with markers around the designated hovering height; the closer its mass center is to such height, the more points the team will get. The team score will be based on the furthest distance to the target height that the robot visits during the 10 seconds of hovering. For instance, based on the previously figure of the vertical sign, if a drone hovers during 10 seconds within the green height slot, the team will score 5 points. If during these 10 seconds the robot moves into the orange height slots, then the team will score 3 points; and 1 point if the drone enters into the red slots. If the drone is not stable or hovers above or below the vertical sign or less than 10 seconds, the team will score 0 points.
• The horizontal accuracy assessment will be based on the landing position of the mass center of the drone with respect to the center of the target. The closer it is to the center, the more points the team will get. For instance, based on the previously shown figure, if the mass center of a team drone is in the central circle of the marker, the team will score with 5 points. Depending on the proximity of the concentric circle where the robot mass center is to the marker center, the team will score 4, 3, 2 or 1 point. If the drone lands outside the marker, the score will be 0 points.

Each team’s final score will be selected from the best attempt in any of the assigned timeslots. If there are several teams obtaining the same scoring based on their best attempt, the tiebreaker will be based on their second-best attempt and so on.