2007: A Stroll In a Cave

From RoboticonWiki

2007 Contest Information A Stroll In a Cave Overview:

You've always had an interest in exploring the local caverns. Fortunately for you, today your friend, who explores the caves regularly, said his spelunking buddy is sick, and invited you along. He assured you that you didn't have to do a thing. He had already laid out the cavern tunnels with torches at every turn, and since you're exploring with an experienced cave spelunker, there would be nothing to worry about. After packing up all your gear, the two of you headed off into the dark and mysterious caverns. However, about halfway into the cave, he trips and twists his ankle. "Go on without me", he cried valiantly. However, the path at this point is so narrow, you can't go backwards to get help. He is blocking the way. He insists "Don't worry, up ahead is another way out. Go find the exit and get help." and sends you off on your own. Now, you are on your own, alone in the caves, and you have to get out of there as soon as you can, to find help for your friend. Contest Summary: The guidebot will lead your robot from a coordinate on the outside of the maze (Point A) to an undisclosed point in the maze (Point B). These points will appear on a large tiled surface with black lines representing the paths your robot (the cave spelunker) can travel on. These paths have LEDs (torches) along the way to guide you along. Your robot must use these lights to navigate a new way out of the maze of lines and LEDs (the cave). The lowest time out wins. Rules:

  1. You may not lead the robot off of the predetermined paths, marked with the black lines and LEDs.
  2. The Robot should not have any hard coded paths built into it. It should find the path out dynamically.
  3. The time will start as soon as your robot moves, after both the guidebot and your robot have reached a full stop at Point B.
  4. The time will stop when your robot has come to a complete stop on the final LED where the guidebot originally started from.
  5. Backtracking is allowed, but you may not push the guidebot out of the way. That specific path is obstructed and cannot be used.
  6. Any physical contact with the guidebot in an attempt to retrace the original path, or otherwise, will result in a time penalty or disqualification, as determined by the Judges.
  7. If the track becomes unplayable through no fault of the contestant (ie. A tile falls out of place), the clock will be reset to zero, and the contestant will be brought back to the starting point, where the robot will restart the challenge with no penalties.
  8. Any team caught intentionally tampering with the course or other teams' hardware without explicit permission from all the affected teams, and the Judges, will be disqualified.
  9. The Judges have the final word in any verdict, and reserve the right to discuss amongst themselves before declaring the final verdict.
 10. All teams should appear for the challenge in a timely fashion. No team may work on their bots once the Roboticon staff call the teams down for the challenges. Unnecessary delays may result in time penalties or disqualification from the event.

Any violation of these rules will be determined by the Judges, as will the severity of the punishment, which may be a time penalty or even disqualification.