RoboFirefighter

Rules for RoboFirefighter

Mission Objectives

To build the fastest autonomous robot that will locate a fire (candlelight) and extinguish it while following an unknown arbitrary path (made of white bookshelves and black line on the surface), detect the end of the path, and return back to home.

Game Rules

This game is based on RoboRace, but the firefighter robot must extinguish the candle light by using a only motorized fan.
There is only one starting position for the Firefighter Race, but there are six possible locations for a candlelight. For each game, the location of the candlelight is decided by a die.
The robot should not touch or push down the candle which is placed outside the bookshelf. See Figure 2.
How are winners chosen? First, the robot must find and extinguish the candle light. Secondly, the winner is chosen by the time of completion, which means returning back to the starting position (fire station).
Rules for just Senior Division: Light intensity in the gym may be varying during the game. Your robot should be adaptable.
Tie breaking rule: (1st) the number of input sensors used; the smaller, the better. (2nd) re-run.

Constructing and Programming

Size of the robot
- Length: Less than 11 inches including any extensions such as antennae, bumpers, etc.
- Width: Less than 10 inches. Note that the width of the bookshelf is 10".
- Height: no restriction.
- Weight: no restriction.
The robot may use any number of any Lego sensors/pieces. Note that you will need an extra motor for the fan. You may order a motor by visiting the LegoMindStorm website, or you may buy a RoboSports extension kit with an extra motor from local stores for Lego MindStorms. However, you may use any extra motors.
Robots may be programmed using any of the programming environments available such as Lego MindStorms ^TM RIS RCX code programming (1.0 or 1.5), NQC, Visual Basic with OCX, or LegOS/C.
How to make a motorized fan? Use a fan with three wings for toy planes which you can buy from Hobby Centers such as Joe's in Dearborn (313-933-6567), Eastpointe (810-773-8294), Farmington (248-477-6266), or Rochester (248-651-8842). Here is a video clip file (mpeg, 120KB) for a firefighting demonstration.

(Fig. 1) An expample of a fan

Constructing Playing Field

Exactly the same playing field as Robo Race is used.
A referee will place a candleholder one inch outside of the bookshelf at a curve as shown in Figure 2. A jumbo birthday candle of 3.25" high will be used.
The location of the candle holder will be dependent on the direction of the robot. Figure 3 shows the location of the candleholder, when the robot turns clockwise. Figure 4 shows the location of the candleholder, when the robot turns counterclockwise.

(Fig. 2) A candle holder and its location

(Fig. 3) The location of the candleholder at a clockwise corner

(Fig. 4) The location of the candleholder at a counterclockwise corner

Acknowledgement

The Robo Firefighter Race was created by Dr. Chan-Jin Chung at Lawrence Technological University in December, 1999. You may use the same game rules for your events, but acknowledgement to the inventor of the game is requested. A similar Firefighting robot contest using a maze was started by Jake Mendelssohn at Trinity College. For more information, please visit www.trincoll.edu/~robot.