Subject:
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Re: Robo Waiter - a BrickFest PDX Robot competition
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics.events
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Date:
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Sun, 18 Jan 2004 06:44:37 GMT
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Viewed:
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6293 times
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In lugnet.robotics.events, Todd Thuma wrote:
> David,
>
> I have a public question about the competition.
>
> Will the robot need to know when and where the starting line (and therefore
> stopping line) be located? Or will the robot simply need to carren he course
> following the line?
>
> What constitutes a robot leaving the line? Does that mean that the entire robot
> goes off track? I could see my robot infrared eye leaving the line, but having a
> search program to help it find the line again. Would this be allowed as long as
> the robot doesn't leave the track?
>
> Also, if the robot should get turned around and travel in the opposite
> direction, will any three complete revolutions around the track count? Is there
> a specific direction that the robots need to travel, i.e. clockwise or
> counterclockwise?
>
> Todd
As Steve pointed out, (Thanks Steve!) the starting line will not be something
that your robot will really be able to notice. I'll use a thin red line, which
your light sensor probably won't be able to detect. But us humans can see it
easily and will use it to line up the robot for the starting line, and to count
laps. Your robot will simply be following the line, when it completes three
laps, we'll stop it (otherwise it would run until the batteries died. :-)
There will be a specified direction to run your robot in. I happen to pick
clockwise most of the time, but if the moon is blue, or the last Tuesday was the
10th day of the month, or its a leap year, I might decide at the last minute to
run counterclockwise. In any case, this shouldn't really make any difference as
to how you build or program your robot. It will see a line in front of it which
it needs to follow. Whether that line curves to the right or left first is
unknown and independant of the loop being clockwise or counterclockwise. While
the turns will tend to curve in one direction more than the other, this
shouldn't really matter either.
Your robot needs to do three laps in the specified direction. If you make one
lap in the right direction, and then two laps in the wrong direction, you'll
need to do four more laps in the right direction to have completed three laps.
(1-2+4=3)
Your robot may not leave the line at all. The reason is that this makes judging
such a competition possible. If you allowed it, how much of a shortcut is
'fair'? If your robot left the line, the only reasonable and fair way to let it
continue would be if it found the same place on the line where it left the line,
and continued on from there. Since that's a MUCH tougher job for a robot to do
than just staying on the line, I suggest you program your robot to just follow
the line. :-)
On the other hand, usually I'm pretty lenient about robots if they are doing
their best, and trying as much as possible to follow the rules. Unless your name
is Steve Hassenplug, in which case you need to follow the rules 100% and even
the slightest deviation will disqualify your robot! :-)
--
David Schilling
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