(Fig. 1) A sample playing field

 

Mission ID Missions Points Repeatable?
1 Driving to the destination 5 Yes
2 Returning back home 10 Yes
3 Delivering a package 10 Yes
4 Popping a balloon 15 No
5 Picking raffle ticket(s) 10 Yes
6 Grabbing a package 15 No

How to Construct a Playing Field

 

(Fig. 3)                                                                 (Fig. 4)

 (Fig. 5) Home base

 

(Fig. 6) Destination base

 

(Fig. 7) 

 

 (Fig. 8) The location of the office desk

 (Fig. 9) Raffle tray

 

 

(Fig. 10)   

 

(Fig. 11) The location of the raffle tray

(Fig. 12)

 

(Fig. 13)

(Fig. 14)

 

(Fig. 15) Office desk with a mail package

(Fig. 16) Office desk

 

  (Fig. 17) The location of the package on the desk

 

(Fig. 18) A lamp lght

 

  (Fig. 19) The location of the lamp light

 

(Fig. 20)The height of the lamp light

(Fig. 21) The balloon, balloon holder, and balloon protector

 

(Fig. 22) Balloon protector

 

(Fig. 23) The location of the balloon, and balloon protector

Missions in Detail

Mission 1: Driving to the destination

A robot will be placed at the home start position as shown in (Fig. 5). After a robot driver presses the "run" (green) button, the robot must be completely autonomous. No human intervention is allowed to complete the task. One robot will follow the track with a black line. If the robot reaches the destination as shown in (Fig. 6), the mission is completed and 5 points will be awarded.

Mission 2: Returning back home

If the robot comes back home after reaching the destination, the mission is completed. The robot does not need to stop its motors when it detects the end at the home position. Total points earned are 5+10=15.

Mission 3: Delivering a package

A package is loaded to the robot by a robot driver as shown in (Fig. 24). After the robot reaches the destination as shown in (Fig. 25), if the robot drops the package into a drop box, the mission 3 is completed. The valid delivery can be announced when any part of the mail package touches the ground surface. If not, no points will be awarded. After the delivery, if the robot returns home, the total points earned are 5+10+10 = 25.

(Fig. 24)

(Fig. 25)

Mission No. 4: Popping a balloon

Somewhere in between the home base and the destination, there will be a lamp as shown in Fig. 1, 21, 22, and 23. A balloon is located at the other side of the lamp. The mission is to pop the balloon using up to 4 (push) pins. You may use rubber bands to attach (push) pins to Lego blocks as shown in figure 26. You must not stretch robot arms from the beginning of the travel hoping the robot breaks the balloon. There is an 11 inch area where you can attempt to break it as shown in Figure 21-23. If the robot pops the balloon and returns back home, 25 (15+10) points will be awarded.

(Fig. 26)

Mission No. 5: Picking up raffle ticket(s)

Raffle tickets will be placed in a tray at the right side of the destination. The mission is to pick a minimum of one raffle ticket and bring it back to the home base. You may use the standard scotch tape up to 6 inches or double sided scotch tape up to 3 inches. The width of the tape is 3/4 inches. If it drops all the tickets, while the robot travels back to home, 5 points will be deducted. If the robot touches the destination, picks up some tickets and returns back home safely with a minimum of one raffle ticket, then the points awarded are 5+10+10 = 25.

Mission No. 6: Fetching a package

A package with a ring as shown in Figure 15 and 17 will be placed on the office table at the left bookshelf of the destination. The mission is to grab it (15 points) and bring it back to the home base and drop it into the box (10 points) at the home base. If the robot fails in grabbing it, the package can be reset by referees and the robot may retry during the next trip. In the case of dropping the package while it travels back home, there will be 10 points deducted, but it may retry during the next trip. 

Time allowed: 2 minutes and 30 seconds. You can run as many trips as possible in this amount of time.

Penalty: If your robot is completely out of control and/or you want to retrieve it by hand, alert the referee, who will allow you to pick it up. However, 5 points will be deducted as a penalty, in any case. You can touch your robot only at home base without the penalty.

Multiple Missions: You are allowed and encouraged to complete multiple missions per trip. The best scenario as follows: popping the balloon (15), reaching the destination (5), dropping a package (10), picking up tickets (10), grabbing the package (15), return home (10), and dropping the package into home box (10). Total points are 75!

Construction of the robot

Programming the robot

Suggested Ideas 

Common Sense Rules

Construction of the robot body is to be done by the students. All programming is to be done by the students. Parents, teachers, or coaches may not assemble the robot bodies or write the program code for the team at any time during the preparation period or during the contest. Especially on the day of the competition, be wary of getting caught up in the excitement and forgetting that this is a student contest! Any direct participation (writing code, assembling robots) is a violation of the rules. The offending team will be out of the consideration of winning even if the team scores 100% on everything. Volunteers will be video taping the team table areas.

Team's Responsibility

Prizes sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

The best score out of three (or two) rounds will be used to determine the following winners.

Lego Robots (5th – 12th grade)

1st place

2nd place

3rd place

$300 Book gift certificates

$250 Book gift certificates

$200 Book gift certificates

Advanced (Handy Board) Robots 

(9th – 12th grade)

1st place

2nd place

$300 Book gift certificates

$250 Book gift certificates

College Level Advanced Robots 1st place $200 Book gift certificates

Special Award Trophies decided by Judges

Judges will visit your table to ask questions. You are required to show your programs as well as your robot to the judges. Each Handy Board team is required to submit a hard copy of source code when checking-in.

FAQ

Special Rules for Advanced (Handy Board) Robots

More than one balloon will be located either left of right side of the track. No lamp light will be used to locate the balloon. Handy board robots can use any sensors such as distance sensor(s) to detect the balloon.

Scoring table sheet which referees will be using is here (MS Word file format).