Annex B2: Autonomous Challenge

Aim

The aim of the game is to build a robot to successfully sort wooden blocks in sequential order.

Details

1. At the start of the game, each team will be given 8 wooden cubes, each of side length 2.5 cm 2.2 cm.
2. The cubes are made of unpainted plain wood (See Fig. 2). Teams may bring and use their own cubes, but they must be of roughly the same dimensions as the cubes provided by the organizers, to within an error of 0.5 cm.
3. The 8 cubes are initially positioned along a ring, such that they are evenly spaced out, separated by angles of 45 degrees (see Fig. 1).
4. The eight wooden cubes in the ring are labelled with numbers '1' to '8'. The labels may be located on either the top, sides or bottom of the cube, depending on whether the robot needs to track the colour of the cube.
5. [Update: 11 Apr 2019] Teams may choose to implement some form of colour scheme on their cubes to allow their robots to autonomously identify the numbers on the cubes. Such autonomous number identification will allow the team to earn a 2x multiplier bonus to the game score. (See Scoring).
6. Teams are allowed to choose the radius of the ring, in accordance with the size of their robot.
7. The maximum radius of the ring should be around 1 m, so that the entire set up can fit on a table top. However, teams may decide to use a much smaller radius if their robots are small.
8. The organizers will provide a field made using white corrugated plastic board, with the ring drawn of radius 30 cm. However, teams may choose to use their own fields if their ring radius are different.
9. The objective of the game is to re-arrange the 8 cubes according to the their numbers in ascending order in the clockwise direction, with the number '1' at the 12 o'clock position (see Fig. 1 (right)).
10. The 8 cubes must initially be resting on the field, with no part of the robot touching them.
11. The 8 cubes must also be resting on the field at the end of the re-arrangement process, with no part of the robot in contact with them.
12. At the start of the game, each team will be a given an eight character sequence.
13. The sequence is a string of randomly generated numbers, each uniquely between 1 and 8 (e.g., '28615734'). These represent the initial positions of the cubes arranged along the ring according to their labelled numbers, starting from the 12 o'clock position. Thus, the positions of the cubes in Fig. 1 are represented by the random sequence '28615734'.
14. [Update: 11 Apr 2019] Teams may choose to either key in the eight character sequence into their robot before it is started, or they may build their robot to automatically identify the numbers on the cubes. If the robot is able to autonomously identify the numbers of the cubes without human intervention, the score attained by the team will be doubled.
15. Teams may bring and use their own cubes, but they must be of roughly the same dimensions as the cubes provided by the organizers, to within an error of 0.5 cm.
16. The maximum duration of each game is 3 minutes.
17. Teams may stop the timing at any time they wish, for example, if their robot has finished the task, or if their robot has malfunctioned.
18. If the machine fails to complete the challenge by the end of the time limit, it will be stopped, and the scoring done based on the positions of the cubes at that time. See section on Scoring below for details.

Scoring

1. The score at the end of each game is equal to the number of cubes that are located in the correct positions, according to the sequence of operations assigned.
2. Cubes must touch the intersection between the axis and either the or outer ring to be deemed to be in the right position.
3. The orientation of the cubes is not important.
4. If the robot is able to autonomously identify the numbers of the cubes without human intervention at the start of the game, the score attained by the team will be doubled. [updated: 11 Apr 2019]
5. The time taken by each team for each game will be recorded and used to decide on the winner in situations where the scores are tied.

Additional Award: Most Efficient Robot:

1. The team will qualify for the Most Efficient Robot award only if it has succeeded in in re-arranging all 16 of the cubes correctly.
2. Robots which attain the highest Efficiency Score (= game score / time taken) during any single game in either the preliminary rounds or the final rounds will win the Additional Award for Most Efficient Robot.
3. Refer to the Additional Awards page.

Rules on robot construction:

1. Each machine must employ one or more microcontrollers or other computer processors to perform its task, and not rely on purely mechanical means to do so.
2. There is no limit on the size of each machine.