Tidy Up the Toys

Premise

You keep on tripping over toys that are strewn all over the floor. It’s time to get them organised!

Aim of the Challenge

To organise the toys into one of two arrangements, using one of two methods.

Control Method

Remote Control or Autonomous.

Time Limit

5 minutes.

Example run

Rules

• Three coloured cubes with sides of 50mm will be placed inside your 1500mm x 1500mm arena. They must be placed according to the diagram below, in the same order as shown. Your blocks may be made out of any material. There are some wooden ones available on Etsy, just as an example. There are also plenty of different ones on eBay. There is a 3D printable, hollow cube available on Thingiverse. There is a lasercuttable version available over at Open Pi Robotics. Thanks to Brian Corteil for designing it!

• Your robot will start facing the “bottom” wall and will need to turn around to face the blocks. If you are planning on mounting a “grabber” on the back of the robot, the front of the grabber should face the wall. You must have to turn around to face the blocks in their starting positions.
• Your robot will need to move all of the blocks so that they are placed inside a target box (shown on the diagram) and so that they are ordered Red, Green, Blue in one of the following two ‘arrangements’:
  • Side by side with no more than 50mm between them.
  • One on top of the other with the Red block on the top, Green in the middle and Blue on the bottom. The stack can be anywhere within the target box.
• You can place the blocks in either of the two arrangements by whichever method you wish: Remote control or Fully autonomous. Please do not mix methods as it will make it impossible to rank you.
• You must state on your video which of these four options you are choosing:
  • Remote controlled, side-by-side.
  • Remote controlled, stacked.
  • Autonomous, side-by-side.
  • Autonomous, stacked.
• You may run the course as many times as you wish but you should submit the video of your fastest run which should be completed in less than five minutes.
• The colour of the cubes, whilst needing to be Red, Green and Blue, can be any shade of those colours that you choose.
• You may place markers (such as QR codes) or coloured patches on or around the Target Box to aid navigation and placement of the blocks.

Ranking and Points

• There are four possible method combinations as stated above.
• For each block successfully placed into the target box, the following points will be awarded:
  • Remote control, side-by-side – 100 points.
  • Remote control, stacked – 200 points.
  • Autonomous, side-by-side – 150 points.
  • Autonomous, stacked – 300 points.
• If all blocks are placed into the correct sequence (as specified above), the following points will be awarded:
  • Remote control, side-by-side – 100 points.
  • Remote control, stacked – 350 points.
  • Autonomous, side-by-side – 250 points.
  • Autonomous, stacked – 450 points.
• Robots will be grouped together according to the four options above and then ranked according to the duration of their recorded run. Points will be awarded to the top ranked robots in each group according to the Formula Scoring System.

Penalties

• You will be deducted 40 points each time your robot hits the arena side wall. (You are allowed to push the blocks against the wall without penalty).

Ask Questions and Discuss

You can discuss this challenge and the general rules with fellow competitors on our Discord chat. If you have questions for the organisers, please contact us through the website.