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Mission Salvation

Event Sponsor:

The Electronix & Robotix Club,
BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus

PRIZES WORTH Rs. 28,000 TO BE WON!!

29 Jan, 2010 - Check the prizes!!!
22 Jan, 2010 - Prizes updated
05 Dec, 2009: Arena and robot specifications have been updated

Introduction

It’s the year 2020. A cyborg has been assigned the task of saving the last surviving human on earth trapped at the centre of a city. Now it has to find its way through narrow and twisting alleys encountering various dead ends and confusing pathways to reach to the centre of the city and complete its task.

Problem Statement

You must build an autonomous self-contained machine to get to the centre of a maze in the shortest possible time.

Rules

General rules

The maximum number of members allowed per team is 4 and minimum is 2
All students with a valid identity card of their respective educational institutes are eligible to participate in this event.
The organizers reserve the rights to change any of the rules as they deem fit. Change in rules, if any will be highlighted on the website and notified to the registered participants.
The event managers’ decision regarding scoring and judgement will be final.

Competition Rules

Round 1: Teams that reach the final square in round 1 will qualify for Round 2.
Round 2: Based on the scoring and judging criteria, as mentioned below, the top 25% of the teams will qualify for the final round.
Participants have to submit their machines to organizers half an hour prior to the start of the event. After that the arena would be revealed
3 minutes time will be given to each participant to make adjust and calibrate the sensors. No information on the maze configuration should be entered or captured into the memory manually during the 3 minutes.
Each contesting Bot is allocated a total of 10 minutes of access to the maze after the 3 minutes sensor adjustment time. If a team takes more than 3 minutes for sensor adjustment and calibration that time will be included in the 10 minutes given to the team.
Every time the bot leaves the start square, a new run begins. If the bot has not entered the destination square, the previous run is aborted.
A maximum of 4 runs can be performed in the stipulated time of 10 minutes
If the bot does not reach the centre within 2 minutes of run commencement the participant can manually place the bot back on to the starting point with a touch penalty.
The time taken to adjust the sensors between the runs will be included in the 10 minutes
If a bot 'gets into trouble' the handlers can abandon the run and restart the bot at the beginning with a touch penalty.
The bot should be capable of going from the destination square to the start square on its own for the next run. However the handlers can put the bot back on the start square after the run with a touch penalty.
The time taken by the bot to reach the start square for a new run will not be considered in the run time
The bot should stop at the destination square for 5 seconds before proceeding for the next run. These 5 seconds will not be counted in the runtime. However they are included in the 10 minutes.

Robot Specifications

The Bots shall be self contained. It shall not use an energy source employing a combustion process
The size of the bot must be within the size limit- width 25 cm, length 25 cm. There is no height limit and the top of the bot may protrude above the top of the maze walls
The bot must be completely self-contained and receive no outside assistance
The method of wall sensing is at the discretion of the builder. However, the bot must not exert a force on any wall likely to cause damage
A Bot shall not leave anything behind while negotiating the maze
A Bot shall not jump over, climb, scratch, damage, or destroy the walls of the maze
The use of Lego kits in making the Bot is not allowed

Arena Specifications

Round 1:

The arena will be a walled path consisting of continuous squares of dimensions 27 x 27 cms
The walls constituting the arena shall be 5 cm high and 1.2 cm thick
The Finish square will have the base coloured in red.

The main event:

The Main Event would comprise of 2 rounds
The arena for Round 2 will be a maze comprising of 5 x 5 multiples of an 27 cm x 27 cm unit square
The arena for Round 3 will be a maze comprising of 8 x 8 multiples of an 27 cm x 27 cm unit square
The start of the maze shall be located at one of the four corners. The starting square shall have walls on three sides
The walls constituting the maze shall be 5 cm high and 1.2 cm thick
Small square posts, each 1.2 cm x 1.2 cm x 5 cm high, at the four corners of each unit are called lattice points
The maze shall be constituted such that there is at least one wall touching each lattice point, except for the destination square
The dimensions of the maze shall be accurate to within 5%
For Round 2, the centre of the maze shall be a single 27 x 27 cm square
For Round 3, the centre of the maze shall be a large opening which is composed of 4 unit squares
This central square shall be the destination
There will be ONE single path to the destination square in Round 2
There will be 2 different paths to the destination square in Round 3
The top of the walls will be RED in colour
All flooring except for the center would be in BLACK
The CENTRE square will have the base coloured in RED

Scoring Criteria

Total score = (600- run time (in seconds)) + stopping bonus – N*touch penalty + 2*Number of squares covered

The run time is the time taken by the bot to travel from the start square to the destination square.
The least run time will be considered for calculating the final score
The team will be awarded a stopping bonus of 50 points if the bot stops on the destination square for 5 seconds after a successful run.
‘N’ is the number of times the bot is put back on the start square by the handlers prior to the best run. For every touch a penalty of 25 points will be levied.

In addition to this the participants may be asked to explain their bot design and algorithm to the judges before the start of their trial .