IEEE PSU Student Chapter Robotics Competition 2014/2015 Official Contest Rules Last revised: December 4, 2014 The IEEE Penn State Chapter is pleased to announce the third annual PSU IEEE Robotics Competition (formerly known as the West Branch Robotics Competition). This year s event includes the robotic Sumo wrestling competition and line following competition. Please check our registration document for the conditions and timelines for registration. Additional pictures of the competition arena will be posted on a separate document by mid January. IEEE Robotics Competition General Rules 1. Actions and items (e.g., tools, notes, resources, supplies, electronics, etc.) are permitted, unless they are explicitly excluded in the rules, are unsafe, or violate the spirit of the problem. 2. While competing in an event, students may not leave without the event supervisor's approval and must not receive any external assistance (e.g. parents, teachers, and coaches). All electronic devices capable of external communication (including cell phones) must be turned off, unless explicitly permitted in the event rule and left in a designated spot if requested. 3. Students, coaches and other adults are responsible for ensuring that applicable laws, regulations, and school policies are not broken. 4. All pre built devices presented for judging must be constructed and operated by one or more of the current team members. 5. All appeals for the event must come from one of the competing team members and should be addressed to one of the event supervisors. 6. The oldest team member on the team determines that team s competition level, being divided into K 8 and 9 12th grade levels (K 8 teams are allowed to compete in 9 12th Grade). 7. No Robot is permitted to fly or damage other robots (or the arena). a. Teams are permitted to vigorously intercept, grasp, push, pull, bump, upset, take down, slide, twist, and roll your opponent. Robots should be designed to withstand these types of attacks, unintentional damage resulted by these actions are allowed. 8. Event Supervisors have the right to disqualify any team/robot that does not meet the requirements in the rules. 9. If you have a question about the event/competition. They should be emailed to IEEEroboticscompetition@gmail.com. Frequently Asked Questions will be placed on the IEEE website under the robotics competition section. Approval from National Science Olympiad Committee: Modified Version of Science Olympiad s General Rules and Event Rule Templates.
IEEE General Information When: Where: Saturday, March 21st, 2015 (doors open at 8:15am) Mount Nittany Elementary School 700 Brandywine Drive State College, PA 16801 The contest will be held in the school s gymnasium. Food: Pizza and soft drinks will be provided at the competition. Admission: The competition is free. Please encourage others to sign up and participate. Public Event: All competitors and devices may be photographed and published on different media. By entering your team in the competition or attending the competition you are allowed to be filmed. IEEE Awards Judged Categories: Most Imaginative Robot Design K 8 Division Most Imaginative Robot Design High School Division Best Presentation K 8 Division Best Presentation High School Division Scored Categories: K 8 Sumo Division Champion High School Sumo Division Champion K 8 Line Follower Division Champion High School Line Follower Division Champion Grand Sumo Champion Contest Winner Grand Line Follower Champion Contest Winner Prizes: Check back here for updates on prizes (January 2015)
Poster Presentation Information The following information discusses the rules and regulations regarding the poster presentations that will be given at the PSU IEEE Robotics Competition. 1. Team Tables and Posters Team Tables: On the day of the contest, each team will be provided with a table in the gymnasium at which to store their supplies and work on their robot. 110 volt AC power is available for tables that request it. If you will be needing power, please bring a 25 foot extension cord and a power strip. Posters: Each team is encouraged to make a poster describing their robot. The poster should include: the name of your robot the division in which your robot is competing the name of your school, church, scout pack, or other organization (if applicable) a description of how your robot works, including diagrams and/or photographs Posters may be freestanding or attached to the front of the table with tape. Teams may display multiple posters if desired. Teams may also create videos or multimedia presentations to display at their tables. Posters will be on display for the general public (this includes other competitors). 2. Team Presentations Presentation: Each team should give a brief oral presentation to the judges. All team members should be prepared to answer questions posed by the judges about how the robot was designed, implemented, and tested. Students should be prepared not only to explain what they did, but why they did it. Duration: The presentation should not exceed 8 minutes. Materials: Teams should display their robot and poster(s) to the judges during the oral presentation. Judging: You should design your oral presentation for a group of judges who are very knowledgeable about science, technology, and mathematics, but not necessarily familiar with all of the hardware and software that your team is using and are not necessarily experts in robotics. Objectives: Each team will be judged on the content and quality of its oral presentation, interaction with judges, and poster(s). Each of these elements of the presentation should demonstrate to the judges that the team members have assimilated and gained mastery of the concepts they have explored while preparing for the contest. Works in Progress: Students who do not complete their robots in time for the contest are encouraged to bring their works in progress and present them to the panel of
judges. A team whose robot is less than 100% complete is still eligible for the Most Imaginative Robot Design and Best Presentation awards. Line Follower (K 8) 1. DESCRIPTION: Competitors must design, build, and test an autonomous line following robot. A TEAM OF UP TO: 4 EYE PROTECTION: None 2. CONSTRUCTION: a. The robot must fit inside of a 9.00 x 9.00 box with no vertical constraints in the starting position b. The maximum weight of the robot is 3.00 kg in the ready to start position. c. The robot may not alter/damage the track (Using adhesive like tape on the wheels is considered altering the arena and is prohibited. Vacuum devices that do not damage the track floor are permitted.) d. Robots must be autonomous and must delay for at least 5.0 seconds after the initiation sequence has been started. e. Teams are allowed to use edge following but must follow the outermost edge of the track. f. Devices must be original and NOT off the shelf robots (Lego Mindstorms and VEX kits or similar are allowed.) 3. THE TRACK: a. The track will be printed on plain white copy paper and be 42 x 96 in area and placed on a hard smooth surface. b. The track will start with a 18 black straight line. c. The starting/finish line will be a 0.1 black line used for timing. d. The track will NOT overlap. e. The following line will be 1.0 inches thick and solid black. The following line will not be released prior to the competition. The following line will have a curvature of at least 5.0 inches. 4. THE COMPETITION: a. Upon arrival to Mount Nittany Elementary School, teams must have their device inspected at the Qualification Table. The judges will then inspect devices, if devices do not meet specifications then they will have the opportunity to fix their robots until the start of the competition. b. At the competition all robots will be given a chance prior to the start of the competition to calibrate their robot. All calibration methods must be documented. Each team will be allotted 3 minutes on the track to calibrate. c. Devices will be re inspected at the start of the competition. If devices do not meet specifications in section 2 at the start of the competition, they will be placed into tier 3. d. The contest will consist of one round in which each robot travels three laps around the track. e. The order of teams competing will be determined by the event supervisor. f. Once a robot is called to the track the team has 120 seconds to set up the robot. If the team fails to set up the robot within the 120 seconds then the robot will be placed in tier 2. g. Once the robot is set up or 120 seconds has elapsed, the team may not touch their robot other than to activate the automation sequence.
h. Code must be uploaded to the robot in front of supervisors at inspection at the Qualification Table. 5. DOCUMENTATION: a. All documentation must be printed out and handed in at inspection at the Qualification Table. b. There are three important parts of the documentation. All should be stapled together with a title page, which must include all pertinent registration information. i. Code and Logic: All code must be printed out and uploaded at inspection. ii. Hardware: All hardware used on the craft must be listed and printed out. Fasteners such as nuts bolts and glues need not be listed. iii. Design: Drawings of the robot with descriptions of each part and it s purpose are required. The drawings should be drawn to scale. c. Each section will be graded to completion worth 100 points per Section. If a section is incomplete it will receive partial points. d. Teams will have to answer 5 questions about their robot s documentation, each incorrect response will subtract 10 points from their score (any team member may answer the questions). e. If teams do not have a title page, they will get a documentation score of 0. f. Documentation Scoring will be the sum of each part of the documentation (max. 300). g. Sample documentation will be posted by mid January. 6. SCORING: Low score wins a. The scoring of the robot will be the sum of the time plus penalties incurred during the round added to any distance not completed. The Documentation Score is then Subtracted from the total. (T + P + DI) DO. i. T = Time it takes to complete 3 laps to the nearest.1 seconds. Robots that do not complete the 3 laps will be given a time of 300.0 seconds. ii. P = 5 points for each time the robot leaves the track. iii. DI = Distance not completed to the nearest.1 inches. iv. DO = Documentation Score. b. Tiers: Teams are ranked first by their tier and then by their score. i. Tier 1: A robot with no violations. ii. Tier 2: A robot with competition violations. iii. Tier 3: A robot with construction violations. c. If you leave the track you will be deducted 5 points and time will be stopped until the vehicle is placed back on the track. d. Ties will first be broken by the weight of the robot. Scoring Examples: a. A robot completes three laps with a time of 186.0 seconds. It left the track twice during its trip, thus incurring a penalty of 10 points. It also had complete documentation answered all questions correct receiving a score of 300. Its score will be: (T + P + DI) DO = (186 + 10 + 0) 300 = 104. b. A robot was unable to complete three laps, stopping 14.0 before the finish line on it s final lap. It also left the track 9 times during its round. It also had incomplete documentation and answered ⅖ questions correct receiving a documentation score of 80. Its score will be: (T + P + DI) DO = (300 + 45 + 14) 80 = 279
Line Follower (9 12) 1. DESCRIPTION: Competitors must design, build, and test an autonomous line following robot. A TEAM OF UP TO: 4 EYE PROTECTION: None 2. CONSTRUCTION: a. The robot must fit inside of a 9.00 x 9.00 box with no vertical constraints in the starting position b. The maximum weight of the robot is 3.00 kg in the ready to start position. c. The robot may not alter/damage the track (Using adhesive like tape on the wheels is considered altering the arena and is prohibited. Vacuum devices that do not damage the track floor are permitted.) d. Robots must be autonomous and must delay for at least 5.0 seconds after the initiation sequence has been started. e. Teams are not allowed to use edge following. f. Devices must be original and NOT off the shelf robots (Lego Mindstorms and VEX kits or similar are allowed.) 3. THE TRACK: a. The track will be printed on plain white copy paper and be 42 x 96 in area and placed on a hard smooth surface. b. The track will start with a 18 black straight line. c. The starting/finish line will be a 0.1 black line used for timing. d. The track might overlap, all overlaps will be at 90 degrees e. The following line will be 1.0 inches thick and dark colors (black, blue, green, red, orange). The following line will not be released prior to the competition. The following line will have a curvature of at least 3.0 inches. f. There may be a background image printed in the background. It will be printed using light colors. 4. THE COMPETITION: a. Upon arrival to Mount Nittany Elementary School, teams must have their device inspected at the Qualification Table. The judges will then inspect devices, if devices do not meet specifications then they will have the opportunity to fix their robots until the start of the competition. b. At the competition all robots will be given a chance prior to the start of the competition to calibrate their robot. All calibration methods must be documented. Each team will be allotted 3 minutes on the track to calibrate. c. Devices will be re inspected at the start of the competition. If devices do not meet specifications in section 2 at the start of the competition, they will be placed into tier 3. d. The contest will consist of one round in which each robot travels three laps around the track. e. The order of teams competing will be determined by the event supervisor. f. Once a robot is called to the track the team has 120 seconds to set up the robot. If the team fails to set up the robot within the 120 seconds then the robot will be placed in tier 2. g. Once the robot is set up or 120 seconds has elapsed, the team may not touch their robot other than to activate the automation sequence. h. Code must be uploaded to the robot in front of supervisors at inspection at the Qualification Table.
5. DOCUMENTATION: a. All documentation must be printed out and handed in at inspection at the Qualification Table. b. There are three important parts of the documentation. All should be stapled together with a title page, which must include all pertinent registration information. i. Code and Logic: All code must be printed out and uploaded at inspection. ii. Hardware: All hardware used on the craft must be listed and printed out. Fasteners such as nuts bolts and glues need not be listed. iii. Design: Drawings of the robot with descriptions of each part and it s purpose are required. The drawings should be drawn to scale. c. Each section will be graded to completion worth 100 points per section. If a section is incomplete it will receive partial points. d. Teams will have to answer 5 questions about their robot s documentation, each incorrect response will subtract 10 points from their score (any team member may answer the questions). e. If teams do not have a title page, they will get a documentation score of 0. f. Documentation scoring will be the sum of each part of the documentation (max. 300). g. Sample documentation will be posted by mid January. 6. SCORING: Low score wins a. The scoring of the robot will be the sum of the time plus penalties incurred during the round added to any distance not completed. The Documentation Score is then Subtracted from the total. (T + P + DI) DO. i. T = Time it takes to complete 3 laps to the nearest.1 seconds. Robots that do not complete the 3 laps will be given a time of 300.0 seconds. ii. P = 5 points for each time the robot leaves the track. iii. DI = Distance not completed to the nearest.1 inches. iv. DO = Documentation Score. b. Tiers: Teams are ranked first by their tier and then by their score. i. Tier 1: A robot with no violations. ii. Tier 2: A robot with competition violations. iii. Tier 3: A robot with construction violations. c. If you leave the track you will be deducted 5 points and time will be stopped until the vehicle is placed back on the track. d. Ties will first be broken by the weight of the robot. Scoring Examples: a. A robot completes three laps with a time of 186.0 seconds. It left the track twice during its trip, thus incurring a penalty of 10 points. It also had complete documentation answered all questions correct receiving a score of 300. Its score will be: (T + P + DI) DO = (186 + 10 + 0) 300 = 104. b. A robot was unable to complete three laps, stopping 14.0 before the finish line on it s final lap. It also left the track 9 times during its round. It also had incomplete documentation and answered ⅖ questions correct receiving a documentation score of 80. Its score will be: (T + P + DI) DO = (300 + 45 + 14) 80 = 279
Sumo (K 8) 1. DESCRIPTION: Competitors must design, build, and battle sumo robots in an arena against a deadweight. A TEAM OF UP TO: 4 EYE PROTECTION: None 2. CONSTRUCTION: a. The robot must fit inside of a 9.00 x 9.00 box with no vertical constraints in the starting position b. The maximum weight of the robot is 4 pounds in the ready to start position. c. The robot may not alter/damage the arena or intentional damage or impair other robots. (Using adhesive like tape on the wheels is considered altering the arena and is prohibited. Vacuum devices that do not damage the arena floor are permitted.) d. Robots must be controlled wirelessly and/or autonomously. If robots are autonomous, they must delay for at least 5 seconds after the initiation sequence has been started. 3. THE ARENA: a. The sumo ring will be 48 in diameter and between 1 1.5 above the floor. b. The top level surface of the arena will be painted satin white. c. The outer two inches of the arena will be painted black. d. Two parallel grey lines of 9 inch length and.75 inch width will be located 3 inches from the center. These lines will be parallel to each other and created from grey vinyl tape. 4. THE DEADWEIGHT: a. A half gallon plastic container will be used as the deadweight. b. The deadweight will be placed on the opposite parallel gray line. c. AA batteries will be placed at the ends of each grey line (totaling 4 AA batteries). These must be collected by the robot before the robot is allowed to intentional push the deadweight. Unintentional contact with the deadweight is allowed. i. To be considered collected, the AA batteries must be touching or surrounded by at least 3 walls of the robot. 5. THE COMPETITION: a. Upon arrival to Mount Nittany Elementary School, teams must have their device inspected at the Qualification Table. The judges will then inspect devices, if devices do not meet specifications then they will have the opportunity to fix their robots until the start of the competition. b. Devices will be re inspected at the start of the competition. If devices do not meet specifications in section 2 at the start of the competition, they will be placed into tier 3. c. The contest will consist of six rounds in which each robot wrestles a deadweight during a 60 second match. The deadweight will have a mass of 5 pound in the first round and 1 additional pound after each round. d. Only winners of a round will go onto the next round. e. Only one student may control the robot during a single round. (This may change from round to round.) f. If any part of the robot touches the ground outside of the arena, the round is considered a failure and will receive no points for said round. g. If the robot does not push the deadweight outside the arena before time is called, the round is considered a failure and will receive no points for said round. h. The order of teams competing in each round will be determined by a random number generator. The order for the competition will remain the same for each round.
i. Once a robot is called to the arena the team has 120 seconds to set up the robot. If the team fails to set up the robot within the 120 seconds then the robot will be placed in tier 2. j. Once the robot is set up or 120 seconds has elapsed, the team may not touch their robot (unless it is autonomous and then it is only allowed to be touched to activate the automation sequence). The team will then ask the event supervisor if they may begin their run. If the event supervisor says yes, the entire team together will then countdown from 3. Upon saying GO, the team will begin the round. 6. SCORING: High score wins. a. The scoring of the robot will be the sum of all rounds successfully completed. Each round scored is equal to (M)*(60 T) i. M = Mass of the deadweight in pounds. ii. T = Time it takes to push the deadweight in seconds to the nearest.01 seconds. b. Tiers: Teams are ranked first by their tier and then by their score. i. Tier 1: A robot with no violations. ii. Tier 2: A robot with competition violations. iii. Tier 3: A robot with construction violations and/or competition violations. c. Ties are broken by this sequence: 1. Weight of the device (Lower weight wins) Scoring Example: At a competition, a robot completed two rounds of the competition. The first round it pushed the 5.00 pound deadweight out in 20.00 seconds and collected all the AA batteries. The second round it pushed out the 6.00 pound deadweight in 30.45 seconds. The third round it failed to push the deadweight out in the 60 seconds. Round 1 = 5 pound * (60s 20.00s) = 200 points Round 2 = 6 pounds * (60s 30.45s) = 182.7 points Round 3 = 0 points Tier 1: 382.7 points
Sumo (9 12) 1. DESCRIPTION: Competitors must design, build, and battle sumo robots in an arena against a deadweight. A TEAM OF UP TO: 4 EYE PROTECTION: None 2. CONSTRUCTION: a. The robot must fit inside of a 9.00 x 9.00 box with no vertical constraints in the starting position b. The maximum weight of the robot is 4 pounds in the ready to start position. c. The robot may not alter/damage the arena or intentional damage or impair other robots. (Using adhesive like tape on the wheels is considered altering the arena and is prohibited. Vacuum devices that do not damage the arena floor are permitted.) d. Robots must be controlled autonomously and must delay for at least 5 seconds after the initiation sequence has been started. 3. THE ARENA: a. The sumo ring will be 48 in diameter and between 1 1.5 above the floor. b. The top level surface of the arena will be painted satin white. c. The outer two inches of the arena will be painted black. d. Two parallel grey lines of 9 inch length and.75 inch width will be located 3 inches from the center. These lines will be parallel to each other and created from grey vinyl tape. 4. THE COMPETITION: a. Upon arrival to Mount Nittany Elementary School, teams must have their device inspected at the Qualification Table. The judges will then inspect devices, if devices do not meet specifications then they will have the opportunity to fix their robots until the start of the competition. b. Devices will be re inspected at the start of the competition. If devices do not meet specifications in section 2 at the start of the competition, they will be placed into tier 3. c. The contest will be double elimination tournaments. Pairs of robots will complete in up to three rounds. The robot that wins two rounds wins that game. d. Teams will be allowed one two minute break to be used between rounds once a tournament. This will allow teams to fix their robot or upload new code to their robot. After the two minutes, the teams will need to be set up at the arena within 120 seconds or will forfeit the round. e. Only one student may control the robot during a single round. (This may change from round to round.) f. The first robot that touches the floor outside the arena losses. g. The bracket will be determined by a random number generator. The bracket will be available for all teams upon arrival. h. Once a robot is called to the arena the team has 120 seconds to set up the robot. If the team fails to set up the robot within the 120 seconds then the robot will forfeit the round. i. Once the robot is set up or 120 seconds has elapsed, the team may not touch their robot (unless it is autonomous and then it is only allowed to be touched to
activate the automation sequence). The event supervisor will count down from 3, upon saying GO, the teams will activate their robot and clear the arena. 5. SCORING: Winner moves on a. Tiers: Teams that are tiered will be allowed to compete. After a match is completed regardless of the outcome, Tier 1 teams will move on over Tier 2 or Tier 3 teams. i. Tier 1: Regardless of Score will win the match against Tier 2 or Tier 3 teams. ii. Tier 2: Regardless of Score will win the match against Tier 3 teams. iii. Tier 3: Will only win a match if their opponent is Tier 3 and they won the match. b. If no winner is crowned at the completion of a round, the round is marked as a tie. i. In the case that it is the third round and both teams have either tied the previous two rounds or each has won one match. The last round will have a 2 minute Overtime period to determine the winner. ii. If the match is still a draw the winner will be the lightest robot at the end of the round.