Subject:
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Re: Ideas for next RCX competition
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.us.smart
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Date:
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Fri, 17 May 2002 02:50:15 GMT
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Viewed:
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1611 times
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In lugnet.org.us.smart, Emmett Lalish writes:
> I've now entered the last two contests, and seen the last three, and I'm
> getting some ideas on how it could potentialy be improved. Overall I still
> think it's a great contest, and run quite well. I had a blast every time I
> came! I think with the recent changes to the sumo contest, it is about as
> good as it can be. I also think the various divisions of line tracking are
> quite interesting and probably the most fair, since the number and types of
> pieces that one owns has little to do with how well you place. The main
> change that I think would benefit would be in the gathering catagory.
Thanks for the comments - but just so there's no confusion, the Workshop 3D
RCX Challenge isn't sponsored or run by SMART. I'll make sure that Ray sees
your comments.
By the way, I also had a blast at the last competition!
> The problem with gathering the way it is now is that the inventions tend to
> be either extremely complex, or extremely simple. The winning robot this
> last time was so simple that it didn't seem quite worthy (not to offend
> anyone of course) in terms of how much energy went into designing and
> building it. Then the second place robot was Gus's incredible, beautifully
> engineered machine that for good reason, no one has been able to match in
> terms of efficiently picking up pucks.
>
> The problem lies in the pucks. They are flush with the ring surface, and
> therefore need a complex mechanism to pick them up efficiently like Gus's,
> however, they are very easy to simply herd. My suggestion is to make this
> contest avaliable to everyone by elimiating the easy solution of herding,
> while also making it easier to pick up the objects. I suggest using the
> other objects that come in the robo sports kit: the yellow foam balls. I
> also suggest that in the rules, in order to be considered to be in control
> of a ball, it must not be touching the surface of the arena.
>
> This way, herding is eliminated, but since it's easier to pick up the balls,
> more people can have a chance at it. Then the real difficulty will be
> manuvering around the other robots and managing to store all of the balls in
> a one cubic foot robot.
>
> I think this would make for a much more interesting contest that more people
> could do well in. Thanks for hearing me out! I'd love to see some replies.
I'm not sure that changing the pucks to balls will completely solve the
problem that you see. First of all, getting a hundred balls (be they
ping-pong balls which you could easily buy in large quantities, or LEGO's
yellow foam ones, which as far as I know only come two per set, and there's
a lot of other bricks you're paying for in there!) would be quite expensive.
The pucks are already available.
But secondly, balls roll easily, and I think we'd see the majority of robots
entered would be simple herders or harvesters that just push the balls up an
incline if they needed to be off the ground.
I'm not speaking for Workshop 3D or Ray, but I think the idea for this
particular event was supposed to be that it is the toughest one to build a
robot for. The line tracking and sumo events are accessible to most people,
but puck gathering was supposed to be the complex event. And there *should*
be an event to really challenge the competitors. If the same event is used
again, I wouldn't at all be surprised if the rules are changed to involve
picking the pucks off the floor next time.
Anyway, good comments. I look forward to seeing you at the next Workshop 3D
RCX Challenge, and perhaps the SMART meeting on this Saturday.
--
David Schilling
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Ideas for next RCX competition
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| I've now entered the last two contests, and seen the last three, and I'm getting some ideas on how it could potentialy be improved. Overall I still think it's a great contest, and run quite well. I had a blast every time I came! I think with the (...) (23 years ago, 14-May-02, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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