USI LRC 2009

General Information

Date: April 24, 2009

Time: 4:00pm - 8:00 pm

Location: USI Technology Center

If you are looking for the USI Lego Robotics Competition, you are in the right place! The ASME and IEEE Student Chapters at the University of Southern Indiana are co-hosting a robotics competition this spring at USI.

Any local middle school, high school, or college students may compete. Teams of four are to work together to design, build, and program a Lego robot to complete a given task. To allow a greater diversity in the competitors, both the old RCX kits and the new NXT kits are allowed for the competition. Teams will be put into divisions based on the grade level and choice of Lego kit. Divisions will be as follows:

• Middle School (RCX)
• High School (RCX)
• Middle School (NXT)
• High School (NXT)
• College (RCX and NXT)

The layout of this competition will be as follows:

SIGN IN:

Teams can sign in beginning at 4:00 pm on competition day (April 24.) Sign in will last until 4:30 pm.

INTRODUCTION / WELCOME:

Teams will assemble in TC 119 for a quick welcome and introduction to the event. At around 4:45, the competition will begin.

PROGRAMMING:

During the competition, a computer lab (TC 117) will be open to students who need to work on their robot or reprogram. Students need bring their own software and towers to program, as we cannot ensure that each computer has the RCX or NXT software installed.

COMPETING:

The teams will compete in an arbitrarily assigned order. To keep on schedule, teams are required to have their robot at the competition table(s) within five minutes notice. Each round will be limited to three minutes. Each team will compete for two rounds (once on each table) and the team with the greatest score wins.

SCORING:

Teams will be awarded points for each round. Only the higher of the two round will be kept. If multiple teams score the same then the team with the shortest overall time wins.

AWARDS:

Awards will be given to the first place team in each division, and other prizes may be awarded upon judges' discretion. (for efficiency, creativity, etc.)

Teams may have anywhere from 2 to 4 members. However, if a team is borrowing a kit for the competition, they are advised to have 4 members, due to limited kit availability.

Teams may consist of a combination of grade levels: For example, a middle school student may pair up with high school students or college students, or vice versa.

Rules

ROBOT SPECIFICATIONS

ROBOTS MAY BE INSPECTED AT ANY TIME BY THE JUDGES.

Robots should be assembled prior to the USI Lego Competition, however there will be time between rounds for revisions.

Robots must be assembled using only the pieces provided in the kits. For RCX, this is the Team Challenge Set or the RIS 2.0 set. For NXT, this includes the Lego Mindstorms NXT Education set. This does not include, however, the box, tub, papers, or storage compartments, etc.

Only the LEGO elements of ONE KIT are to be used per team.

No pieces may be modified in any way.

All robots must be fully autonomous. (No remote control or outside interference allowed)

Robots must begin and end intact (in one piece). If a robot loses and pieces, points may be deducted.

Leads or wires cannot be used to hold a robot together.

Teams are allowed only one robot to compete. If any changes are required, this can be done between rounds.

PROGRAMMING

Teams must be able to present their programming upon request by a judge during the competition. (Have your program saved on a floppy disk, USB disk, or CD-ROM)

Programming is not limited to RoboLAB and Mindstorms NXT as long as the team can produce a copy of the programming (via printout) for the judges.

Teams should bring any software/equipment needed to program. IR Towers, Bluetooth dongles, and USB cables will NOT be provided during the competition.

No programming is allowed within the competition room (TC 119) at any time.

COMPETITION GUIDELINES

While robots may temporarily extend beyond the boundaries, they must begin and end each round within the boundaries of the course. Should a robot fall off the course, the round should end immediately, and points totalled.

Robots may not cause damage to the course. Purposeful damage of the course is legitimate reason for immediate disqualification.

Each round will last two minutes, at which time, all points that have been accumulated during the round are totaled.

In certain situations, judges may allow a rerun (e.g., if a robot fails to move)

Course Details

The following are simple diagrams of the course. The robot should autonomously move the ping pong balls and tennis balls around the course into the areas numbered [1] through [5]. The course will be painted flat white and the walls will be flat black. The lines are made with 3/4” black electrical tape.

Notes

PARENTS and TEACHERS: This event is to help the kids learn about the cool uses of technology and to let them enjoy themselves. While coaching is acceptable, we prefer that students compete on their own. Please do not build or run the robots for them.

Schedule

The following schedule is tentative and subject to change:

4:00 Sign In: Lobby of Technology Center (TC)

4:15 Opening Ceremony: TC 119

4:20 Round 1 of Competition Begins: TC 119

6:10 Break / End of Round 1

6:20 Round 2 of Competition Begins: TC 119

8:10 Break / End Round 2

8:20 Awards Ceremony

8:30 Event ends

*TC 117 will be open for programming / building

**Actual competition order will not be announced until registration begins.

CLICK ON EACH IMAGE TO EXPAND.

A 3D model of the course is also available.

See the attachments at the bottom of this page.

Scoring

OBJECTIVE:

Move the balls on the course to get the maximum points.

HOW TO PLAY:

Each numbered region on the course (e.g. [1], [2], [3], [4], or [5]) is a scoring zone. Move as many balls as possible to the highest numbered region to score points.

A Ping Pong Ball is worth 1 point, multiplied by the number of the region it is within. For Example, a Ping Pong ball in region [3] is worth 3 points (1 x 3 =3), and one in region [5] is worth 5 points (1 x 5 = 5).

A Tennis Ball is worth 5 points, multiplied by the number of the region it is within. For example, a Tennis ball in region [2] is worth 10 points (5 x 2 = 10), and one in region [4] is worth 20 points (5 x 4 = 20).

Each round is 2.00 minutes long. At the end of each round, points are allotted based on the location of the balls on the course.