1. Arena.
1.1. Description:
1.1.1. The arena is modular. Each module can be thought of as a "room"
in a building. Modules may be placed adjacent to each other (on the
same level horizontally) or may be stacked vertically. Modules on the
same level are connected by level hallways. Modules on different levels
are connected by a sloping
hallway or ramp.
A
ramp will not exceed an incline of 25 degrees from the horizontal.
Building plans are linked on this site (see sidebar).
1.2. Size:
1.2.1. Each module is 48 inches by 36 inches in size (approximately 122
cm by 91 cm) with walls that are 11 inches high (approximately 28 cm).
1.3. Doorways:
1.3.1. Each room will have 2 doorways in standard locations (see
building plans). Robots will enter through one doorway and exit
through the other.
1.4. Floor:
1.4.1. The floor of each room will be a light colour (white, or close
to white). The floor may be either smooth or textured (like linoleum
or carpet).
1.4.2. The arena should be placed so that the floors are flat and level.
1.5. Line:
1.5.1. On the floor, there will be a black line for the robots to
follow. The black line will be made with standard electrical
(insulating) tape, 1 - 2 cm wide. The black line traces a maze on the
floor. It may have 90 degree turns in it, turns of other angles, or
curves. The line will never cross itself. The line will never come
closer than 10 cm to a wall or another line.
1.5.2. The black line will enter and exit each room through the
standard doorways. The line will continue along the hallways and ramps
so
that it creates a single route through all the modules in the
arena. Any straight section of the black line running alongside a wall
(in a room or on a ramp)
may have gaps of up to 30
cm in it. A gap in the line may contain a victim.
1.6. Debris:
1.6.1. Debris may be located in the rooms (but NOT in a
hallway or on a ramp).
1.6.2. Any section of the black line that is further than 25 cm from
the nearest wall may have debris lying across it.
1.7. Graded difficulty:
1.7.1. It is recommended that the
first room (the "Yellow Zone") in the
course should NOT contain any gaps or sharp turns in the black line
and should be free of debris.
1.7.2. It is recommended that
subsequent rooms (the "Orange Zone" and
"Red Zone") in the course should be progressively more difficult. (Note
that the rooms themselves are NOT coloured. Yellow, orange and red
signify easy, intermediate and hard.)
1.7.3. The black line may end at
the entrance to the last room (the
"Red Zone") in the course, so that robots are required to utilise some
form of
search strategy to locate victims and the other doorway (i.e. the exit
and finishing line) in that room. Victims may be located anywhere on
the floor of that room, but must each be at least 10 cm from the
nearest
wall.
1.8. Victims:
1.8.1. "Victims" will be located in random positions throughout the
course.
1.8.2. Two types of victim may be present:
1.8.2.1. Victims constructed out of green tape;
1.8.2.2. Victims constructed out of aluminized tape or aluminium foil.
1.8.3. The victims will be adhered flat across the black line, or flat on the floor when located in a
gap or in the "Red Zone".
1.8.4. The reflectances (for
red light at normal incidence)
of the
silver bodies,
white (or close to white) floor, green bodies and black line will be
well
separated, with the following gradation: silver bodies (lightest) >
floor > green bodies > black line (darkest).
1.9. Lighting:
1.9.1. Teams must come prepared to calibrate their robots based on the
lighting conditions at the venue.
1.9.2. Lighting conditions may vary along the course in the rescue
arena.
1.10. Magnetic conditions:
1.10.1. Every effort will be made by the organizers to locate the
rescue arena away from magnetic fields such as underfloor wiring and
metallic objects. However, sometimes this cannot be avoided.
Hint: It is recommended that teams design their robots to cope with
variations in lighting and magnetic conditions, as these vary from
venue to venue. Teams should come prepared to calibrate their
robots based on the conditions at the venue.
2. Robots.
2.1. Diameter:
2.1.1. The upright robot must fit inside an upright 22 cm diameter
cylinder.
2.1.2. Robots will be measured with all parts fully extended.
2.2. Height:
2.2.1. The robot height must not exceed 22 cm.
2.3. Control:
2.3.1. Robots must be controlled autonomously.
2.3.2. Robots must be started manually by humans.
2.3.3. The use of remote control of any kind is not allowed.
2.4. Team:
2.4.1.
In each round, a single robot is deployed which must perform its tasks
autonomously. (In certain international competitions, this rule can be
modified such that two or more robots are deployed together and have
to cooperate in fulfilling the task. Check the bylaws for the
competition.)
2.5. Construction:
2.5.1. Any robot kit or building blocks, either available on the market
or built from raw hardware, may be used, as long as the robot fits the
above specifications and as long as the design and construction are
primarily and substantially the original work of the students (see
section below).
3. Inspection.
3.1. Schedule:
3.1.1. The robots will be examined by a panel of referees before the
start of the tournament to ensure that they meet the constraints
described above.
3.1.2. It is the responsibility of teams to have their robots
re-inspected if their robots are modified at any time during the
tournament.
3.2. Robot configuration:
3.2.1. While being inspected, each robot must be upright and at its
maximum size; i.e. anything that protrudes from the robot must be fully
extended.
3.3. Students:
3.3.1. Students will be asked to explain the operation of their robot
in order to verify that the construction and programming of the
robot are their own work.
3.3.2. Students will be asked questions about their preparation
efforts, and may be requested to answer surveys and participate in
video-taped interviews for research purposes.
3.4. Violations:
3.4.1. Any violations of the inspection rules will prevent that robot
competing until modifications are effected.
3.4.2. However, modifications must be made within the time schedule of
the tournament and teams must not delay tournament play while making
modifications.
3.4.3. If a robot fails to meet all specifications (even with
modification), the robot will be disqualified from that round (but not
from the tournament).
3.4.4. If there is excessive mentor assistance or the work on the
robots is not substantially original work by the students, then the
team will be disqualified from the tournament.
4. Play.
4.1. Pre-round setup:
4.1.1. Organizers will make every effort to provide the teams access
to the competition area for calibration, testing and tuning before
the start of the competition.
4.1.2. Organizers will make every effort to allow at least 5 minutes
of setup time before each round.
Hint: Participants should be aware, however, that situations may
arise where these conditions cannot be met; and so participants should
arrive prepared to cope with
conditions that are less than ideal.
4.2. Length of round:
4.2.1. Robots will be given a maximum time of 10 minutes to complete
the course. The time for each round will be kept by the referee.
4.3. Start of play:
4.3.1. To begin, the robot is placed at its starting location in the
doorway at the beginning of the black line.
4.3.2. Teams that are late for their starting time will forfeit the
round.
4.4. Humans:
4.4.1. In general, movement of robots by humans is not acceptable.
4.4.2. Humans can move robots only when told to do so by the referee.
4.4.3. Before the start of each round, teams should designate one human
who will act as "captain", and be allowed to start the robot, based on
the stated rules and as directed by the referee.
4.4.4. Other team members (and
any spectators) within the vicinity of the rescue arena are
to stand at least 60 inches (approximately 150 cm) away from the arena
while their robot is active, unless otherwise directed by the referee.
4.5. Objective:
4.5.1. The robots have to follow the black line and attempt to complete
the course through the entire arena.
4.5.2. Robots are rewarded for locating "victims" on the course.
4.5.3. Robots are rewarded for successfully negotiating gaps in the
black line.
4.5.4. Robots are rewarded for successfully avoiding items of debris
blocking the black line.
4.5.5. Robots are rewarded for successfully entering a room through one
doorway and exiting through the other doorway.
4.5.6. Robots are rewarded for successfully negotiating a ramp without
any assistance.
4.5.7. Robots are penalized for making false victim identifications
(i.e. indicating that they have found victims at locations where there
aren't any).
4.5.8. Robots are penalized for lack of progress (i.e. whenever human
intervention is required to enable them to resume progress along the
black line).
4.6. Lack of progress:
4.6.1. Lack of progress occurs if the robot is stuck in the same place
or loses the black line for more than 20 seconds.
4.6.2. In cases where lack of progress is due to the robot
getting stuck (e.g. oscillating forward and backward or turning in a
circle) at a victim or obstacle or getting caught on something (e.g.
the edge of a doorway), the referee may pick up the robot and place
it back onto the black line a little beyond the cause of the problem,
20 seconds after it first stopped making progress.
4.6.3. In cases where lack of progress is due to the robot losing the
black line at a sharp turn, gap, victim
or obstacle, the referee may pick up the robot and place it (20 seconds
after it lost the line) back onto the line a little beyond the turn/gap/victim/obstacle, for it to
attempt to complete the course.
4.6.4. In cases where a robot leaves the black line for no apparent
reason, the referee may pick up the robot (after 20 seconds) and
return it to the point where it left the line, for it to attempt to
complete the course.
4.6.5. The 20-second rule allows the robot some time to recover the
line or resume progress along it, without human intervention.
4.6.6. The referee will not turn off the robot or restart its program.
4.6.7. A team may elect to stop the round early if the lack of progress
is caused by a faulty robot. In this case, the team captain must
indicate to the referee the team's desire to terminate. The team will
be awarded all points achieved thus far.
5. Scoring.
5.1. Victims:
5.1.1. Ten (10) points are awarded for each victim located by the
robot. The robot indicates that it has found a victim by stopping
and flashing a lamp for at least two (2) seconds.
5.1.2. Extra points are NOT awarded for the same victim being
located more than once.
5.2. Gaps in the black line:
5.2.1. Ten (10) points are awarded for each gap in the black line that
the robot successfully negotiates (i.e. recovers the line on the far
side of the gap).
5.3. Debris blocking the black line:
5.3.1. Ten (10) points are awarded for each item of debris blocking the
black line that the robot successfully avoids (i.e. moves around the
debris and recovers the line).
5.4. Rooms:
5.4.1. Ten (10) points are awarded for each room that the robot
navigates successfully (i.e. enters through one doorway and exits
through the other doorway).
5.5. Ramp:
5.5.1. Thirty (30) points are awarded for the robot successfully
negotiating a ramp
without any assistance.
5.6. Penalties:
5.6.1. Two (2) points are deducted
for each false victim identification (i.e. whenever a robot indicates
that it has found a victim at a location where there isn't one).
5.6.2. Five (5) points are deducted for each lack of progress (i.e.
whenever human intervention is required to enable a robot to resume
progress along the black line).
6. Conflict resolution.
6.1. Tie breaks:
6.1.1. Ties in scoring will be resolved on the basis of the time taken
by each robot to complete the course.
6.2. Referee:
6.2.1. During game play, the referee's decisions are final.
6.3. Rule clarification:
6.3.1. Rule clarification may be made by members of the RoboCupJunior
International Technical Committee.
6.4. Special circumstances:
6.4.1. Specific modifications to the rules to allow for special
circumstances, such as unforeseen problems and/or capabilities of a
team's robot, may be agreed to at the time of the tournament, provided
a majority of the contestants agree.
7. Documentation.
7.1. Reporting:
7.1.1. All teams must bring written documentation describing their
preparation efforts.
7.2. Presentation:
7.2.1. Organizers will make every effort to allocate each team a
public space (approximately 90 cm by 130 cm) to display their
materials.
7.2.2 Since the public space available at the tournament venue
could be limited, teams are encouraged as an alternative to bring
some kind of electronic presentation in PowerPoint format.
7.2.3. Posters or electronic presentations should be made in an
interesting and entertaining format, as they may be viewed not
only by the judges, but also by other teams and the visiting
members of the public.
7.2.4. The presentation should provide information about the team
and how they prepared for RoboCupJunior. Areas that could be covered
include:
7.2.4.1. Team name;
7.2.4.2. Division (primary or secondary);
7.2.4.3. Team members' names and (perhaps) a picture of the team
members;
7.2.4.4. Team's country and location within country;
7.2.4.5. Team's school and district;
7.2.4.6. Pictures of the robot under development;
7.2.4.7. Information about the robot and team;
7.2.4.8. Any interesting or unusual features of the robot;
7.2.4.9. What the team hopes to achieve in robotics.
7.2.5. Officials will review the documentation and discuss the contents
with team members.
7.2.6. Prizes may be awarded to teams with outstanding presentations.
7.3. Sharing:
7.3.1. Teams are encouraged to view one another's presentations.
8. Code of Conduct.
8.1. Fair Play:
8.1.1. Robots that cause deliberate damage to the arena will be
disqualified.
8.1.2. Humans that cause deliberate interference with robots or damage
to the arena will be disqualified.
8.1.3. It is expected that the aim of all teams is to participate
fairly.
8.2. Behaviour:
8.2.1. All movement and behaviour are to be of a subdued nature within
the tournament venue.
8.2.2. Competitors are not to enter setup areas of other leagues or
other teams, unless expressly invited to do so by team members.
8.2.3. Participants who misbehave may be asked to leave the building
and risk being disqualified from the tournament.
8.2.4. These rules will be enforced at the discretion of the referees,
officials, tournament
organizers and local law enforcement authorities.
8.3. Mentors:
8.3.1. Mentors (teachers, parents, chaperones and other adult team
members) are not allowed in the student work area.
8.3.2. Sufficient seating will be supplied for mentors to remain in a
supervisory capacity around the student work area.
8.3.3. Mentors are not to repair robots or be involved in programming
of students' robots.
8.3.4. Mentor interference with robots or referee decisions will result
in a warning in the first instance. If this recurs, the team will risk
being disqualified.
8.4. Sharing:
8.4.1. An understanding that has been a part of world RoboCup
competitions is that any technological and curricular developments
should be shared with other participants after the competition.
8.4.2. Any developments may be published on the RoboCupJunior website
after the event.
8.4.3. This furthers the mission of RoboCupJunior as an educational
initiative.
8.5. Spirit:
8.5.1. It is expected that all participants (students and mentors
alike) will respect the RoboCupJunior mission.
8.5.2. The referees and officials will act within the spirit of the
event.
8.5.3. It is not whether you win or lose, but how much you learn
that counts!
Appendix.
Bylaws for RoboCup 2007 in
Atlanta,
USA:
A1. Teams will be paired together
to form multinational teams ("multi-teams") of two (2) robots, for half
a day (3 hours) at a time. Each team will contribute a robot to its
multi-team (i.e. one team cannot provide both robots).
A2. Both robots must start from the same location, at the entrance to
the first room (the "Yellow Zone") in the course. The faster robot
should be started first, followed by the slower robot after an interval
of at least thirty (30) seconds.
A3. The score for each multi-team will be the combined score for their
two robots (n.b. victims located by both robots will be counted only
once - see rule 5.1.2.). Both teams in the multi-team will have that
score added to their own (separate) cumulative scores for the heats.
A4. In both the Primary and Secondary competitions, the twelve
individual teams that achieve the highest cumulative scores in the
heats will proceed to the finals on the last day of the competitions.
A5. In both the Primary and Secondary competitions, prizes will be
awarded to the three individual teams that achieve the highest
cumulative scores in the heats, and to the three multi-teams that
achieve the highest scores in the finals.
A6. In both the Primary and Secondary competitions, a prize will be
awarded to the team with the best presentation.