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Brickworld 2007, June 21-24, Chicago
Rock Crawling:
The goal is to accumulate points by conquering as many obstacles as possible
along a “Rock Crawling” course, with the spirit being to produce a remote
controlled vehicle that can traverse a very wide variety of terrains or
challenges. Any form of remote control is acceptable here: wired, infrared,
radio, or Bluetooth, for instance. The remote control does NOT have to be
LEGO-only, but the vehicle (with the exception of the remote control receiver)
does! The winner is the vehicle with the highest-scoring single run of the day,
regardless of the cumulative totals for the day. In the event of a tie, the
winner shall be determined by a final run for each tied vehicle, with first
place going either to the highest point total or, only in the event of a second
tie, to faster vehicle.
Arena:
The course will be a linear series of obstacles, each worth a specified number
of points (more points for obstacles that are judged to be more difficult). Each
obstacle is defined as one or more gates, no more than 18” apart (they could be
narrower), that the vehicle must pass between without touching. For purposes of
the contest, the gates are assumed to extend vertically upward to the ceiling
from their positions on the course, so going over the gate markers without
technically touching them is not permitted. Obstacles could be almost anything:
steep slopes to climb and descend, small (or large) steps, rough terrain,
“washboards”, narrow “canyons”, ridges, or valleys, as well as many other
options are possible. The surfaces may be highly variable as well: carpet,
smooth wood, sandpaper, boxes full of Styrofoam packing peanuts, LEGO “scree”,
loose fabric, etc. There will be a chance to practice, but the point values for
each obstacle will not be revealed before the contest begins.
Event Structure:
Each competitor will have three chances to attempt the course, organized into
three heats. The competitor order for the first heat will be determined at
random, but the subsequent two heats will be run in rank order (current highest
place runs first, followed by the current second place contestant, etc.). Each
obstacle successfully navigated earns the specified points, but an attempted &
failed obstacle subtracts half the specified points (in other words, you can be
penalized for an unsuccessful attempt). At any time during a run a contestant
may choose to by-pass (by driving around) an obstacle or series of obstacles,
earning no points but incurring no penalty for them (note: there may be some
obstacles that are mandatory and can not be by-passed, but very few and of an
easy nature). A successfully navigated obstacle is defined as one where the
vehicle successfully passed through all the defined gates for that obstacle
without any manual intervention (note for wired remote control setups: the
connecting wires can not in any way pull, push, or tug on the vehicle!) and
without contacting the gates in any way. If the vehicle, obstacle, or gate needs
to be touched, pushed, repositioned etc., that obstacle is considered failed for
that run and the resulting penalty is applied (at that point, the vehicle can be
moved to the far side of the obstacle). Once an obstacle is failed, it can not
be attempted a second time in that run. There is no specified time limit on a
run, but the judge has the right to end a run or declare an obstacle attempt
failed prematurely if it is deemed to be holding up the entire contest. One “pit
stop” per run will be allowed if needed (so that competitors can correct damage
ONLY, not modify their vehicle mid-run), but this can only occur between
obstacles and if more than one is needed that run will be over.
Robot construction and limitations:
All robots must be constructed of 100% unmodified LEGO parts (that is, any part
that can be bought directly from LEGO, be it Shop-at-home, LEGO Education,
etc.), with the exception of the remote control system mentioned above: no
gluing, cutting, melting, or other modification or modified pieces are allowed.
This rule applies to sensors, motors, tires, treads, etc. (the spirit here is to
disqualify things like RC racers “reshelled” in LEGO). There is no weight or
size limitation: however, remember that the gates will be at most 18” wide, and
the entire vehicle must fit between them. Furthermore vehicles will have to
handle at least one turn with a radius of 2’ (and perhaps others with still
tighter turns). While “wired” remotes are allowed (where one or more wires are
used to carry control signals from the remote control to the vehicle), there are
two strict limitations on these: (1) the vehicle power source must be carried
on-board (for example, the wires can only provide control signals, for instance
to an RCX or motor running a polarity switch. It is not permissible to power the
drive or steering motors directly from the remote control), and (2) the wires
can not at any time interfere with the free motion of the vehicle (they can not
pull, drag, or in any other way interfere with the motion of the vehicle at any
time). Wireless remote control systems are encouraged, and we will try to have
one or more wireless remote controls available (one almost certainly NXT-based,
using the BT communication ability built into NXT-G). Further details on this
will be provided later.
A note on obstacles:
There is not, and will not be, a predefined set of obstacles for this event.
Since the goal is to produce a vehicle with maximum mobility, the spirit should
be to design a vehicle that can handle anything that can be thrown at it, not a
“tuned” design for a highly specified task. Surfaces, angles, etc. will be
varied as much as realisticly possible.
--
Brian Davis
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Brickworld 2007 - Call for Mindstorms competitors
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| As part of Brickworld 2007 in Chicago, Jun 21-24, we are going to try to run at least four seperate Mindstorms events: *The ever-popular Sumo (4' ring, 2 lb limit, flipping strongly encouraged) *Line maze (find your way to the exit, as fast as (...) (17 years ago, 18-Apr-07, to lugnet.events.brickworld, lugnet.announce, lugnet.general, lugnet.events, lugnet.robotics) !
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