Question on Robotics from Tech. Fest

The objective is to design an autonomous robot which is capable of moving the blocks of a specific color into the pot holes on a pool table. The blocks will actually be light weight cubes which can be pushed to move them into the pots. The team that gathers maximum points wins.

The arena is a 2m x 2m square board with holes of radius 30 cm on each of the four corners. The following figure (not to scale) gives a rough idea of the structure of the arena.

Starting

Point

8 cm

200 cm

30 cm

The blocks are cubes of side 8cm.

 Starting point is as shown in the figure.

 The table color is green.

 The pots on the corners are black in color.

 The cubes are of blue and red colors (3 each).

 The robot should fit in a box of dimensions 15cm x 15cm x 15cm.

 An overhead camera will be provided.

Tasks:

 There will be cubes of two different colors, 3 of each color. These will be placed randomly all over the arena.

 A team has to chose one color and pot all the cubes of that color.

 A time Slot of 10 min will be given for each round.

Rules:

 A robot cannot touch the cubes of the other color.

 The actual colors on the arena may be slightly different from the ones specified, depending on availability and texture of materials.

 The participants are not allowed to lift the cubes off the arena.

 The robot should be strictly autonomous.

 Once the round begins, the team players are not allowed to make any contact with their robots or the programming interfaces.

 Damage to the arena will lead to disqualification from Event.

 All decisions made by the judges will be final and any arguments in any case won’t be entertained.

 Time Out Rules will be provided at the time of competition.

Judging Criteria:

 100 points will be awarded for potting 1 cube successfully (of course, of the chosen color).

 A penalty of 50 points will be imposed if the robot touches the cubes of the other color.

 Once the robot successfully accomplishes the task, the number of seconds remaining from the total time of 10 minutes will be added to the total points of the team. (e.g. if a team completes the task in 8 minutes, 120 points will be added to the total points of the team).