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BrickFest™ PDX 2007 LEGO Mindstorms Robot Competition
Robotic Easter Egg Hunt
The Challenge:
Build a robot that will look for chocolate Easter eggs, and deposit them over
the edges of the arena.
The Rules:
A judge will tell each contestant where to place his robot. At a signal from the
judge, the contestant will start the robot. The robot will have three minutes to
find as many eggs as possible, and drop them over the edges of the arena.
The ideal is for the robots to be completely independent once they have been
started. If a robot becomes stuck or otherwise inoperable, the owner may pick up
the robot, make brief adjustments if desired, and place the robot back in the
original starting location (and nowhere else). The time will not be stopped
while this is taking place. There will be a 10-egg penalty for doing so: ten of
the highest point eggs will be removed at the end of the round.
Scoring is as follows:
A robot with rabbit ears will receive 2 points. A robot that moves away from the
starting area will receive 3 points. Eggs must be dropped outside of the arena
to count. Each egg dropped within 6-inches of any corner of the arena will be
worth 7 points. Each egg dropped anywhere along the edge of the arena will be
worth 3 points. Each egg the robot is carrying (it must be off the floor to
count as being carried) will be worth 1 point. One ‘special’ egg will be singled
out by the judge at the beginning of the event. The points for that egg will be
counted double.
The winner is the robot with the highest number of points.
Building restrictions:
Your robot must fit in a 16” by 16” square, though smaller than that is strongly
encouraged, as the gap between obstacles may be as small as 16”.
Robots may consist of only LEGO pieces, plus possible custom sensors. You may
use any LEGO robot platform you desire. HiTechnic sensors ARE allowed. Any other
custom sensor will be allowed as long as its computing power is negligible, and
it is smaller than 2”x2”x1”, and not used mechanically. Motor multiplexors are
NOT allowed, though your robot MAY use multiple NXTs, RCXs, Scouts, or
Cybermasters if desired. Only normal building techniques are allowed. No
modifying pieces, gluing, taping, etc.
The robot must stay in one piece at all times. If a part is lost, it will remain
on the arena until the end of the round (unless the owner opts to fix his robot,
taking the penalties for doing so).
Any mechanism in the robot that tends to remove the foil from the eggs (other
than by accident, and with less than one in twenty eggs handled) will be
stopped, and its score computed.
The Arena:
The arena will be a flat, smooth 4-foot by 8-foot sheet of some material yet to
be chosen (probably a sheet of plastic, or plywood). It will have transparent
plastic edges around the sides that are at least 1” high, and at most 2” high.
The edges will be less than 1/4” thick.
Sitting on the arena will be two or three LEGO buildings. These will be taped
down, so they don’t move. They will be at least 16” away from the walls, and
each other. They will have an overhanging roof, and possibly a narrow baseplate
edge around the bottom.
A bag of Hershey’s chocolate Easter eggs will be randomly scattered around the
arena.
Robot placement is going to be away from the edges, and any obstacles. Eggs will
be cleared from that location so that no egg is closer than 4 inches from the
robot at the beginning.
At the event:
Each robot will be given 3 minutes to find Easter eggs. A score will be given to
each robot after it completes its 3-minute run. Time permitting, each robot will
then have a second chance. The higher of the two scores will count.
The highest scoring robot will receive a prize!
After the main individual robot event, there will be a chance for multiple
robots to compete against each other at the same time. For this event, the
buildings will be removed, and depending on the number of entries, between 3 and
6 robots at a time will be placed on the field. Scoring is slightly different
for this event: eggs picked up will be worth 2 points, eggs dropped over the
edge, or corners will be worth 5 points. If multiple rounds are required for all
robots to have a chance to participate, the winners of the individual rounds
will compete in a final round.
Finally, all robots will be judged on aesthetics. The best looking robot will
receive a prize.
Some Tips:
The foil may come off the eggs. Make sure that your robot can deal with that --
both handling the foil, as well as handling a ‘naked’ egg.
Make sure your robot can handle the different possible heights of the edge.
High reliability is WAY more important than building a robot that attempts to
achieve the highest possible score.
Fine Tuning:
The organizers reserve the right to make minor changes to the arena or rules
before or during the event. All teams will be made aware of any changes to the
rules.
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