Contest History Page

The 2003 Game: Robo Tow Truck

or

Neill's $3.3M Folly

The University is in serious financial trouble. The stock market crash plus the expensive construction of a new house for the President, (but not for the Wiess Master) have depleted the endowment. Once again the troubled University has turned to its students for help. The Ass. V. P. for Finance and Student Aggravation has significantly increased parking ticket fines for student vehicles that are not in the correct lots on Monday morning. Your task is to build a robot tow truck to collect the vehicles of your friends on the opposite side of the campus, and to bring them back and place them in your parking lot. You also have to deal with the opposing robot who is trying to collect his set of vehicles. The robot with the most points at the end of the game wins. Strategy, reliability, and speed are important because your opponent can end the game early and stop your scoring.

The board and specific game rules are described below. See the web page of the current game for a description of the contest format, the general contest rules, and the robot construction rules, which do not change signifcantly from year to year.

 

Specific Game Rules

The game board is a 6 foot by 8 foot nominally flat surface. One half of the board is painted black and has white lines to aid navigation; the other half is painted white and has black lines. In the diagram above, the navigation lines are shown as thick dashed lines. The board has 4.5 inch high walls at all four sides. All the walls are painted white. A two foot long by 3-3/4 inch high wall at the center of the table, painted white on one side, black on the other, separates two rows of cars. Each side of the table has an enclosed parking lot with a card reader and gate. The red stars represent the starting lights in the board where the robots begin the game. The start lights are on the centerline of the board, 1 foot from the back wall. The above drawing is reasonably to scale, but the official dimensions are those of the physical game board. Since the board is constructed in parts, there may be small surface and wall misalignments; these should be less than 1/8 inch. The various features of the board shown in the diagram are explained below.

Parking Lots

The parking lots are about 2 feet square, enclosed on two sides by the game board walls, on one side by a row of bollards, and on the fourth side by a gate. The bollards are cylindrical posts 1-1/4 inches in diameter, 4 inches high, and spaced 4 inches on center. The gate is a plastic tube, 3/4 inch in diameter, about 8 inches above the table surface, extending 20 inches out from the wall. The gate pivots up at the wall to allow entrance when a parking pass is inserted into the card reader. The reader is located at the front corner of the lot, 2 feet from the side and rear walls. The reader slot is a 1 inch high gap, with the bottom 8 inches above the board surface. When a card is placed in the slot (breaking the IR beam) the gate will rise and remain up so long as the card is in the slot. The gate will lower 2 seconds after the card is removed.

Vehicles

The cars are 2 inch foam rubber cubes; the SUVs are 2 x 2 x 4 inches long foam blocks. The vehicles will be located as shown at the start of the game. The 5 cars are located on a line 8 inches from the board center line, 6 inches apart along the center 2 feet of the board width. The SUV is located 1 foot from the board side and end walls, across from the parking lot. Your vehicles are the ones that are on the opposite side of the board from where you start. If you start on the white side, your vehicles are white foam blocks on the black side; if you start on the black side, your vehicles are pink foam blocks on the white side. Your robot may collect, move, or touch only its own vehicles. The game pieces may not be altered, punctured, or damaged in any way.

Scoring

One point will be awarded for each of your vehicles that your robot causes to cross the game board center line, from the opposite side to your starting side. This point is awarded only once for each vehicle.

For each of your cars in your parking lot at the end of the game you will receive 2 additional points. If your SUV is in your lot at the end of the game, you will receive 10 additional points.

The machine with the most points wins the game. If there is a tie, the judges may decide the winner based on which robot has more vehicles closer to its parking lot, or declare a double win. If no points are scored a double loss will be awarded.

Period of Play

  • The contestants will have 30 seconds to place their machines on the game board from the time the judges call them. During this time the start lights will be ON to aid in robot alignment. When both teams are ready, and/or the preparation time is over, the start lights will be turned off and the teams will have a few seconds to prepare their robot to start the game. The robots may be placed in any orientation within the starting area, which is a circle 18 inches in diameter centered on the start light.
  • The game will be started by the judges turning on the starting lights, located in the surface of the table in the center of each robot's starting circle, for the first two seconds of the game.
  • False Start Rule: A robot that fails to start as expected will be awarded a loss, and may be removed from the table at the judge's discretion. The remaining robot will be allowed to play without opposition.
  • The powered portion of a game will last a maximum of 90 seconds. Software will be provided to cut off power at the end of 90 seconds, and any machine that continues to supply battery power after that time will lose the game.
  • The game will be ended early whenever a particular parking lot gate is opened a total of three times. The robots will be turned off manually and the score computed based on the vehicle positions at that time.
  • The judges will propose to terminate a game early if neither robot appears to be making any progress.