Roborodentia 2009

Roborodentia XV

Competition Rules and Course Specification:

Version 1.0 (11/17/08)

This year's competition is a head-to-head double elimination style tournament where the

object of the competition is to launch ping pong balls into a net. Each ping pong ball thrown

into a team's goal is worth 1 point and the robot with a higher final score wins a match.

The competition will be held during Cal Poly Open House, April 18, 2009 on the Cal Poly campus and

is organized by the Cal Poly IEEE-Computer Society. The Computer Society can be

contacted via email at ieee.cs.calpoly@gmail.com

Teams are required to register with the Cal Poly IEEE-Computer Society with their intent

to compete in Roborodentia. Registration forms will be made available.

Note: Rules are subject to minor changes. Any changes will be announced and noted in the change log at the bottom of this page.

1. Course Specifications (see attached diagrams for more details and dimensions)

1.1 The entire course is 6’ wide x 8’ long, with a thick wall down the center and walls around the edges.
1.2 The black lines shown on the course are strips of 3/4" black electrical tape. There is a 6” gap from a wall to the outer edge of the electrical tape.
1.3 A team's goal is located behind the playing field of the opposing team. The goal is attached to the outside of the back wall, extends 1' above the back wall, and is 3' wide.
1.4 Balls will be dispensed from ball hoppers. Each team has 2 ball hoppers and each hopper can hold 5 balls at a time.
1.5 The opening for a hopper is 4" off the ground and 1 3/4" wide. The top of the hopper will be open.
1.5 The center wall is 3” high and will be painted red. The exact color will be made available. All other walls and surfaces will be white.
1.6 All balls are 40mm regulation ping pong balls. You can request free sample competition balls by emailing ieee.cs.calpoly@gmail.com

2. Robot Specifications:

2.1 Robots must be fully autonomous and self-contained.

2.2 Robots must be 12” x 12” x 12” or smaller at beginning of the match, but may autonomously expand after the match begins. At any point during a match, a robot may not be larger than 24” x 18” x 18”.

2.3 A robot may not disassemble into multiple parts.

2.4 Robots may not use any RF wireless receivers/transmitters during the competition.

2.5 Robots may not damage the course or the contest balls.

2.7 Contest balls are not considered part of a robot.

2.8 Adhesives may not be used to pick up balls.

2.9 If a robot has RF wireless components onboard, the contestant will be required to notify the judges before the competition, and be able to demonstrate in some way that the components are not used. If RF components are found on-board that were not declared, or declared unoperational when active, it will be grounds for immediate disqualification.

2.10 Intentionally jamming an opponent's sensors is not allowed.

3. Competition Regulations:

3.1 There are 2 reload areas per team - 1 area per hopper. An empty hopper is reloaded once a robot touches the electrical tape in the reload area farther away from the hopper. Reload areas will be colored black (they are shown as red in the drawings).

3.2 A robot will have a maximum of 10 reloads during a match (maximum of 50 reloaded balls, in addition to the initial 10 balls in the hoppers).

3.3 For all reloads, one of the reloaded balls will be a bonus ball worth 3 points when shot into a goal. The bonus ball will be in the third position of each reload.

3.4 Balls may only be retrieved out of the entrance to the hopper (e.g., balls may not be taken directly off the ramp). In the detailed hopper drawing below, only the hopper entrance and section closest to the back wall are defined (the right side, relative to the drawing orientation). Anything to the left of this toward the center wall is undefined (shown with green shading), and no assumptions should be made about any properties of features on the opposite side of the course wall, such as the length of the ramp, height of the ramp, height of the wall, etc...

3.5 If a contest ball goes off the course, then the ball is out of play with no penalty assessed.

3.6 If a ball lands on the playing field, it may be picked up by a robot.
3.7 Each time a ball lands and stays in the team's goal (regardless of which robot shot the ball), a point is awarded.
3.8 Balls in flight at the buzzer will be considered in the final score.

3.9 Robots will be randomly seeded on the morning prior to the event.

3.10 The tournament will be run in a double elimination format.

3.11 A match will last 3 minutes.

3.12 If both teams agree, the match may end prior to three minutes.

3.13 At the end of a match, the robot with more points wins that match.

3.14 1 false start is allowed per team per match. A false start must be requested before the team's robot touches a ball and within 3 seconds after the match starts.

3.15 A 3 second tone countdown will signal the start of a match. Contestants must start the robot during this period by pressing only 1 button 1 time. Contestants may not touch a robot during a match. Touching a robot ends the run for that robot. The robot keeps all points up to that instant.

4 . Penalties:

4.1 A robot may not break the vertical plane located at the halfway point of the 3" center wall. Crossing the plane will result in disqualification for that match.

4.2 A robot that attempts to damage an opponent's robot will be disqualified for that match.

5. Tie breakers

In the event of a tie, the following tie breakers (listed in order below) will be used to

determine a winner: