Race On! - Rules

Registration:

Registration period starts Monday, August 26 and ends Thursday, September 5.
Each team (as long as all members are new to Race On) must register online and must pay $80 registration fee that goes towards the car acquisition by the end of the registration period, and an $80 deposit that is refunded when the team participates in both races, regardless of performance.
If you or one of your team members competed in a previous Race On competition you still have to register online but your team does not have to pay the registration fee or deposit, and you will also not receive a new car. You can reuse your components and car, and we can help replace certain components if you need to. If you have specific questions, contact Valeriu and you can discuss your specific situation, if necessary.
Teams are formed of two to four students that are currently enrolled at USC and are the only ones who build, program, and race the car.
Each team delegates a contact person that will represent the team and will be contacted if team actions are required.
All teams compete in the same races and on the same racing track irrespective of their program and year of study.
Students are required to exhibit appropriate sportsmanship behavior and any attempts of cheating would result in penalties or disqualification.

All teams compete with a car built around an 1/10 scale RC touring chassis.
Distance between the front and back wheels, wheelbase, should be between 250 mm to 270 mm.
Altering the contact surface of the tires is not allowed.
Cars should use one Mabuchi RS-540SH brushed motor to drive the car.
Cars should use one battery, two LiPo cells with 7.4 V nominal and 8.4 V max, to power the car and the electronics.
Converters that produce voltages above 8.4 V are not allowed.
Cars should be controlled solely by a Raspberry Pi board and operate autonomously during the race.
Camera must be the primary navigation sensor.
Car dimensions should not exceed 12 inch width, 15 inch length, and 12 inch height with all sensors and additional boards mounted.
Adding additional sensors such as accelerometer, gyroscope, encoders is allowed.
Adjusting the suspension springs and weight balance, removing auxiliary chassis parts, and mounting additional boards is allowed.
To see whether your additional modifications are acceptable, contact Race On team before implementing. If your modifications are illegal, you will not be allowed to compete in the races.

One hour before the races start, all cars should be placed on the inspections area.
The judges will inspect the cars according to requirements specified in the cars section.
Violation of the requirements would be penalized with extra time or disqualified based on the severity of the violation.
Cars would stay in the inspection area until the beginning of the race.
No mechanical modifications are allowed after this point without approval from the judges.

Racing track is black with white lines delimiting the track boundary.
The dimensions of a track segment are 48 inch width and 48 inch length.
The white lines delimiting the track are 2 inch wide and spaced 2 inch from the edge of the track segment.
Track segments are of three types, Start/Finish Line, Straight Line, and 90° Turn.
The Start/Finish segment has in the middle two white squares which are 2 in wide and spaced 2 inch apart.

The starting order of the teams is selected randomly.
All teams have three attempts to finish the race and record the fastest time.
Teams, in order, will finish the first attempt before proceeding with the second and then the third.
After being called for racing, teams have two minutes to prepare the car and start the race.
Only one member of the team is allowed to operate the car during the racing attempts.
Cars are placed two to six feet before the finish line.
During the race, cars should always be between the two white line delimiting the track.
If during the race one or more wheels completely cross the white line, the attempt is marked as failed.
Cars should stop in less than 10 feet from the finish line after finishing one lap otherwise two points are subtracted from the final race score.
Completing each race awards the team a certain number of points (see section below called "Points").

This year, because there are two races, the winner will be determined by their score on the following point system rather than a lap time.

Reasoning for the change:

To have two races and make the competition more about optimizing the car.
The point system is designed such that a team that did average in the first race can still win the competition if they improve for the second race. Also, the best team in the first race does not automatically win if they do average in the second race.

Notes:

The team score is the sum of the points accumulated in the two races.
This final score will be compared against the final score of all the teams to determine the final ranking.
The team with the most points wins.
If multiple teams have the same number of points, they will receive the same ranking. (For example, if there are 7 teams and their points are 25, 20, 20, 17, 13, 13, 10, there will be two second place winners and two fourth place winners.)

Race #1:

Race #2:

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