(CDbot by Dan Gates)
Revised 09/23/04
Robot Specifications:
Robots must be autonomous. Data links to off-board computers are allowed, but no human operated remote controls will be permitted.
The length, width, and weight of a robot are not specified in this contest. The only requirement is that the robot must remain on the course during the event. It is the designers' responsibility to design the robot to accomplish its task.
Robots are not required to automatically stop at the end of the track, contestants will be allowed to catch and stop their robot after it crosses the finish.
Track Specifications:
The track will be a black line made from ¾ inch wide electrical tape on a white background made from corrugated plastic sign board such as that used for election signs. There will be straight-aways, turns, widened lines, off sets, broken segments, and crossings. The exact details of the course will not be known before the contest. There will be two tracks with approximately the same number of straight lines, curves, etc. The curves will be as circular as possible, considering that the black track is made from adhesive tape. So the radius of the curves will be about 6 inches.The Course:
Race Operations:
Each machine is allowed one or more opportunities, depending on available time and track availability, to "test drive" on the track (or similar construction official test track) for testing and calibration.
Test opportunities are first-come, first-served.
This is a 'two up', race style, competition, it will be done in a round robin elimination and the final winners will be determined by single elimination from the contestants with the most wins of the round robin.
The contestant starts a match by pressing a start button. Timing of the run will begin when the judge calls "BEGIN" and end when one of the robots crosses its finish line.
Once a match has started, no contestant or official may touch the track or
interfere with the machines in any way except to reset a machine. Resets are
done only by the race official.
Handicap Awarding:
Because this competition does not allow for beginner and advanced segregation, handicaps will be awarded to even out the contest. Handicaps are awarded as negative seconds in the following manor.
Race Scoring:
Races will be run in matches of two machines, on separate tracks of equal length that may cross each other
Each race is timed; the machine with the lower total time wins the match.
The time is calculated from the call of "BEGIN" to the point where each robot crosses its finish line. Seconds will be added or subtracted to a score due to penalties or handicaps determined by the judges.
A contestant may not operate a robot. All manipulation of the robot is to be done only by the tournament official until the robot crosses its finish line.
A robot that has no part of its structure over the course line, or is clearly not steering in response to the course line, is no longer tracking the course line and will be reset by an official and penalized.
Resetting a robot onto the course incurs a 5-second penalty (and how ever much time it takes the official to replace it). Placement will be as close as humanly possible to where it left the line.
Decisions regarding whether a robot is tracking the course line are made only by a track official.
A match ends when both robots have completed the course, or
each robot is deemed by the official to be unable to track the line, or at the
end of 3 minutes.
Final scoring:
Accuracy in completing the event is ranked above speed.
Final scoring shall be as follows:
Entries that have completed the course with no penalties shall be ranked in order of fastest time.
Then:
Entries that have been assessed penalties shall be ranked in the order of lowest combined time and penalty points.
If no robots complete the course, the robots shall be ranked by total distance covered, as determined by the match official. If this cannot be determined, the winner will be chosen in a manner to be decided by the tournament officials.
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