Subject:
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SMART Meeting notes - BrickHeap Wars
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.us.smart
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Date:
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Sun, 29 Sep 2002 06:17:30 GMT
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Viewed:
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1353 times
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Today SMART held its first competition - a BrickHeap Wars. We had four teams
participate, as follows:
"Something That Rotates!"
Doug Bell
Scott Harris
Steve Burrows
Nick Burrows
Edward Samson
"The Movers"
Steve Weil
Ethan Weil
Michael Sloan
Joe Aguirre
William Andress
Chris Andress
"Techno Jabbers"
William
Max
Jules
Tom Stone
Kyle Stone
Mark Kenworthy
"Better Red"
Craig Lewis
Peter Sadowski
Bill Bailey
Gus Jansson
Lennart Jansson
Landon Meernik
All the teams did amazingly well, and I want to congradulate everyone on
their superb efforts. This was definitely not an easy challenge to do, yet
no one gave up. There was a large number of kids on the teams and it was
especially encouraging to see them actively participating in the design,
building and even programming of the robots! Way to go, everyone!
The challenge was to unload pallets from a truck, and place them in a
warehouse, the combination being an arena built for this purpose. Full rules
are included at the end of this message for those who are interested.
The robots had a lot of difficulty in completing the course. More time would
have been appreciated by all the participants. The final team "Better Red"
finally managed a win, (with 10 points) after being dead last (due to a
quirk of the rules) on a previous run.
Pictures will be available soon (once they've been moderated) at this
location: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=26020
In the meantime, here were the teams:
"Something That Rotates!"
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/David/SMART/Meetings/2002-09/p9280035.jpg
"The Movers"
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/David/SMART/Meetings/2002-09/p9280105.jpg
"Techno Jabbers"
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/David/SMART/Meetings/2002-09/p9280104.jpg
"Better Red"
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/David/SMART/Meetings/2002-09/p9280106.jpg
Sorry about not getting everyone in the team pictures - a few people had to
leave early. And by the time I thought of the idea, "Something That
Rotates!" had already taken apart their robot.
Anyway, I hope everyone had a great time.
After the competition we also had a chance to test out our Simon Says
robots. They did their thing amazingly well! This will be fun to watch next
week! I look forward to seeing all these robots, as well as hopefully a few
of the others that didn't make it yet, at NWBrickCon.
Thanks, to everyone that participated in the competition, and to everyone
who has built a Simon Says robot!
--
David Schilling
BrickHeap Wars: Challenge #2 Rules
Truck Unloading
Teams:
Each team may consist of 3 to 6 participants. There will be a maximum of 4
teams.
Objective:
Each team is to build a robot that unloads a number of pallets from a truck
and puts them in a warehouse.
Scoring:
Each unloaded pallet is worth 5 points. Each damaged pallet or non-upright
pallet will reduce the score by one point. (I.E. Two points if both damaged
and non-upright.) Finally, for each row of LEGO studs used in the warehouse
beyond the 10th one, a point will be subtracted from your final score.
Building Rules:
Each team is to build a robot from the parts provided. No other parts may be
used, no parts may be modified and no parts may be traded or borrowed from
other teams. Robots should not damage pieces while operating. Robots may be
programmed by whatever software a team has available to them. NQC or the
standard Mindstorms software is suggested, as RIS 2.0 software will be
preloaded onto the RCXs.
Time Limits:
You will have until 3:45 pm to build and program your robots. After 3pm the
arena will be available for testing, but you will only have the two test
pallets given to your team to test with. Tests should last no more than a
few minutes – share the arena. At precisely 3:45 all teams will be asked to
stop building and programming or risk being disqualified.
Running Rules:
The judges will choose which order the teams will go in. Each robot will be
placed touching the far wall of the warehouse, facing the truck, to start
with, and will be given 5 minutes to unload the truck. At a signal from the
judges one member of the team may press the “Run” button on their robot. No
further interaction will be allowed. If a robot or pallet leaves the
truck/warehouse arena, the run will stop and a score will be calculated.
Second Chance:
If at any time during the course of a run (before the time-limit is up!) the
entire team agrees unanimously that they wish to give their robot a second
chance, they may inform the judges that they wish to “restart” or have a
“do-over”. Only one do-over will be allowed, and the second run will be
counted no matter what. There will be a two-minute grace period before the
do-over during which the robot may be repaired and the arena is reset.
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