Time limit
5 minutes
Control method
Autonomous
Aim of the challenge
Your robot will autonomously follow a black line approximately 15mm wide on a white background. Last year's course layout is as shown on the right - click here or on the image for a larger version. This year's course will be different but we recommend using the design for practice. The course will be placed on the floor inside a box 2.44m x 1.22m. The black line does not go to the very edge of the perimeter but instead allows a robot A3 in size to navigate safely around.
Ranking and points
Robots will be allocated 5 minutes to complete the course as many times as they can up to a maximum of 5 circuits. Each circuit of the track will be timed and the shortest time taken will count for ranking purposes.
Points will be awarded to the top finishers like so:
- 1st: 40 points
- 2nd: 32 points
- 3rd : 25 points
- 4th : 18 points
- 5th : 15 points
- 6th : 12 points
- 7th : 10 points
- 8th : 8 points
- 9th : 6 points
- 10th : 4 points
- 11th : 2 points
- 12th : 1 point
Additional points
- 5 points will be awarded for each completed circuit of the course.
Penalties
- The first rescue is free of points deduction.
- Subsequent rescues incur a deduction of 3 points per rescue.
- Up to and including 5 rescues are permitted after which you must abandon the challenge.
- The points will be totalled at the end of the challenge and it is not possible to go below zero points.
You say the black line does not go to the very edge of the 2.2m x 2.2m area. What is the size of the area that the black line is in, without the ‘whitespace’? And I’m presuming the 2015 course will be a similar style to the 2014 one, therefore if we train our robots on the 2014 course the calibration / optimisation will be transferable?
The course size has altered to be 2.44m x 1.22m and is much better than last year. The design is under wraps, but will be much better than last year!
Hi guys, will the base for this challenge be painted hardboard this year like the other challenges? Last year’s looks like it was paper and I am not sure how my wheels (or the paper!) would cope with that.
Cheers,
DP.
Its being printed professionally on plastic and then laid over hardboard
Wow! – dead posh 🙂
And really good to know, thanks.
Rgds,
DP.