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Organizations / United States / SMART / David Schilling / ideas / future_challenges_long | |
| Future Challenges
Tag Play tag with two other robots. Make sure your RCX is mounted vertically, with the IR sensor on top, and in the clear. When you are ‘it’, you must broadcast message 31 once every five seconds, and try to touch another robot. When you are not ‘it’, avoid the robot that is ‘it’. The three robots will be in an enclosed area. You need to program your robot in such a way that it can be told at the beginning whether it is robot #1, 2 or 3. An unbiased human will judge the game, and use a remote to send messages 1, 2 and 3 indicating which robot is currently ‘it’. A game runs for three minutes.
Steerable multi-legged walker Build a steerable four or six-legged walker. Walk forward four feet, turn left or right 90 degrees and walk another two feet.
Wagon push Push a standard wagon six feet across the finish line. The wagon will have four wheels, the two nearest you are steerable, the further two fixed. The wagon will connect to your robot by a downward pointing axle, four bricks off the floor, and three studs long. The standard wagon will be twelve studs wide, and thirty-two long.
Batter Up! A ping pong ball is dropped from 1 meter high, and a light turned on at the same moment. Your robot is to swing at the ball, hitting it as far as possible.
Inverted Pendulum Balance a 1-meter long yardstick above you. You’re not allowed to hold onto it tightly. To simplify this, we’ve built a base holding the yard stick that only allows it to swing forwards and backwards (no side-to-side motion).
Half Pipe Climb or ‘swing’ yourself out of a half pipe. The walls will be perfectly vertical at the tops, so you’ll have to figure out a way to get past that.
Four Corner Escape A team exercise: Four robots are placed in a 2x2 cell consisting of tape. Each cell is 2-feet by 2-feet. Only one of these has an exit. The robot in the cell with the exit must signal the other robots letting them know where to exit, and only after the other three robots have left the cell, may it leave itself.
Line Tracking with Line Breaks Track a line with occasional breaks in it. The breaks will have a reasonable maximum distance, and the continuation of the line will be in a straight line from where the last segment left off.
Time-Accurate Line Tracking Track a line with the goal of finishing in as close to a given time span as possible.
Tug of War Pull your opponent across the center-line using a 1/4” solid braid nylon rope that is initially placed on the table next to your robot. Robots have 20 seconds to pick up the rope before they may start pulling, and 40 seconds for the tugging part of the competition. There will be a weight and height limit.
Web Crawler Build a robot that find the center of a web of ropes. Various portions of three concentric ‘rings’ of ropes are connected with inward strands. A light bulb is placed at the center. Your robot starts at the outside ring and must work its way to the center of the web. As submitted: Web Crawler: (chasm crossing with multiple ropes) Design and build a robot to navigate a simple web constructed of nylon rope (or other appropriate material). The goal being to start on one side of the web and successfully traverse a series of interconnecting lines to reach an intended goal. With the knowledge that none of the lines provides a direct route between the start and finish. The layout envisioned as follows: a simple ladder web set parallel to the floor. The thought process leading to the proposal is that can a LEGO robot hang from the rope, navigate the lines, be able to change direction and seek out a light source as the finishing point.
The Pit and the Pendulum This one’s difficult As submitted: The Pit and the Pendulum: (stair climber) A robot has to extricate itself from a pit of stairs. A pit is constructed of differing heights of steps and the LEGO robot is placed in the bottom, the robot can choose any path that the programmer sees fit and attempts to navigate the steps to reach the top within a predetermined time period (the Pendulum). While some steps are easily navigable there are other at various levels that will be quite high and thus out of reach, forcing the bot to find a better route. The steps can be colour coded (coloured electrical tape?) that would allow the bot to either test the height of each step or check the color for a known predetermined height and decide from there. The robot must be able to negotiate a variety of vertical and horizontal distances and can move around the landing to find the quickest route to the top. This is simply a variation on the stair climbing challenge, with stairs on all four sides with the challenge being can a robot be built that can accommodate the varying distances.
Ball Hog A hundred ping pong balls are placed in a level 6’x6’ enclosed area. A 2’x2’ square in two opposite corners are marked. Build a robot that collects as many of the balls into your corner within a minute as possible. As submitted: Ball hog: (search and gather) Two (or more) robots are let loose in a confined space containing a sea of ping pong balls, the robots collect as many balls as possible and return them to a base station to be counted, the robot that collects the most wins. Variation: Within the sea of ping pong balls there are a few that are coloured red, if a bot picks up a red one and returns it to its base station, it counts against the total. Variation: Again in the sea of white ping pong balls there are a few red coloured balls, but this time only the red balls are worth points, other colours can be added and be worth varying amounts once returned to the base station. (credit goes to MIT robotic challenge)
Log Rolling A three foot long, 6” to 12” diameter cylinder is mounted on bearings. Two robots are placed on the ‘log’, the last to remain on, without touching the other robot, wins. As submitted: Lumber Jack: (log roller) Two bots are placed on a freely rotating log (tube or bar), bots compete to balance themselves, and unbalance an opponent, without physically encountering the opponent.
Follow the Leader I don’t know how this can be done with an RCX As submitted: Follow the Leader: Two robots, one is the leader and is programmed to randomly move about a confined space while the second must follow as closely as possible without touching the first.
Pac Man This one’s difficult As submitted: Pac man (maze) a bot navigates a maze picking up colored bricks, (blue), when a strategically placed yellow brick is picked up the first bot signals to a second bot to start, the second bot tries to tag the first bot before it leaves the maze. Variation: Signal can release more than one chaser bot to increase the difficulty. Variation: Remove the blue bricks and sparsely place only yellow bricks and the first bot tries to gather as many yellow bricks as possible before being tagged by the second Note: the second bot can be set to hunt for a predetermined time limit then sits idle until receiving the “go” signal again.
Walking Tug of War Build a walking robot that can pull its opponent across the centerline using a 1/4” solid braid nylon rope. As submitted: walker tug of war (self explanatory) Pull your opponent across the center-line using a nylon rope.
Telerobotic Navigation Build a robot that can navigate the edges of a large checkerboard pattern stopping at each intersection to wait for a message from a remote. Message 1 means go one square to the left, 2 means go one square straight ahead, and 3 means go one square to the right. As submitted: Mouse Hole Maze: (tele-robotic navigated maze) A bot navigates a maze that the operator cannot see (a divider with a mouse hole cut out divides the operator from the bot and the mouse hole allows for wires to pass through. The bot is equipped with sensors but not an RCX, the operator uses a connected RCX(s?) as a remote control device and depending on what information is relayed back to the operator (either via sound or LCD display), the operator must decided where to navigate in order to reach the finish point. The maze could be constructed of black tape on a white surface (to avoid wire snags that would occur with physical barriers) and coloured tape could be used as way points to indicate the bot is on the correct path. Variation: Replace the human operator with an RCX to test programming and communication skills.
Hide and Seek This one’s difficult As submitted: Hide and go seek: A confined space with objects large enough for a bot to hide behind. The hide bot first locates a suitable hiding spot then a signal is sent for the seeker bot to begin searching for the hide bot. The hide bot can have a highly reflective plate located on top and the seek bot can use a light source to search and determine via a light sensor too indentify the hide bot, then must reach out with a touch sensor probe to push a corresponding touch sensor plate on the hide bot to “tag” and confirm the find.
Cat Herding A level, enclosed space has a hundred ping pong balls placed in it. In the center of this space a 2’ diameter circle is drawn. Build a robot that herds all the balls onto the circle. Extra points: Stop when you know you’re done. As submitted: Sheep herding: Within a confined space a number of lighted bumble balls (http://shop.store.yahoo.com/discounttoys/ej34693.html) are set loose for a bot to herd in to a pen within a certain amount of time.
Pong Using the soccer arena and IR ball, two robots play pong with each other. As submitted: Pong: Using an IR ball, have two bots play pong in a confined, walled space
Space Invaders This one’s difficult As submitted: Space invaders: One bot moves side to side trying to stave off three bots that are stepping forward, each time the defender bot “hits” a attacking bot, with either a IR message (or shooting a brick, or ball of some sort) the attacking bot moves back one step, or pauses, if the defender doesn’t “hit” the attacker before reaching the baseline, then, as in space invaders, the game ends in a loss. If the defender “hits” the attackers a predetermined amount of times (4?) then the attacker is put out of commission. To keep the defender from sending a constant barrage of “bullets” a limit can be placed on how much ammunition or time between shots limit can be placed on the defender. And the attackers can have a sensor pause after a hit is recorded to keep the defender from getting the four hits in quick succession.
Island Hopping A number of rectangular 2’x2’ ‘islands’ are placed in a chain (but not in a straight line), each 6 to 10-inches from the previous one. Build a robot that can get from the first island to the last one without touching the floor. Your robot will need to find where the each island is. As submitted: Island hopping: (chasm crossing) A starting platform with numerous pedestals placed randomly leads to a second platform (finish platform). A bot will have to find and lay down a bridge to cross to the next pedestal, then find the next pedestal to reach the eventual finish platform.
Orbit Rendevous As submitted: LOR (LEGO Orbit Rendevous): One bot is circling a three foot diameter disc, a bot at the center of the disc has to link up with the orbiting bot, once joined the two traverse to a secondary location a certain distance away where the second bot detaches and “lands” in a target area.
Stanley & Livingstone Two bots equipped with a light and light sensors attempt to find each other in a darkened room containing tables and chairs. Each bot is built by different participants. Each bot takes turns being Stanley and Livingstone. As submitted: Marco Polo: Two bots equipped with a light and light sensors attempt to find each other in a darkened arena. Each bot is built by different participants. Each bot takes turns being Marco and Polo.
Two robots start at opposite ends of a six foot long 2x4 which is balanced by a horizontal bar going through the center of the beam. At the end of 1 minute, the side of the beam that is lower indicates the winner. Any strategy may be used, but robots must be completely above the beam at the start of the match. Robots may weigh a maximum of 2 lbs -- it is suggested if your robot is close to this weight that you have a means of reducing the weight slightly if the official scale says you are over. There will be a soft landing place for robots that fall off the beam.
Line Tracking Follow a black 1/2-inch wide line that will turn sharp corners, including acute angles.
Getting up Upright yourself from any orientation you are place in. “Up” will be considered to be having the RCX buttons on top.
Walking sumo Push your opponent off the table without being pushed off yourself. You may not have rotating wheels on the ground, however permanently locked, non-rotating wheels are acceptable.
Search and gather Move around an enclosed area and collect white 4x4x4 LEGO cubes. There will be at least ten of them.
Line maze Follow a line maze to the ‘exit’, which will be a 6 inch diameter circle. The maze will be made out of 1 inch wide black tape on a white surface. All angles will be 90 degrees, and the lines will be at least six inches apart. [To be decided: There may be loops in the maze.] You will be given one chance to learn the maze first, and when you reach the exit, you will immediately be placed back at the start to run through the maze a second time, giving you an opportunity to demonstrate you’ve learned the maze by following the shortest path to the exit the second time around.
Stair Climb Climb up a number of irregular steps. The height and length of each step will be different. Don’t fall off the last one, though. [This one needs to be fleshed out more - there’s no real need for an RCX or programming as it stands. Anyone with ideas please let us know.]
Trailer push Push a trailer as straight as possible, six feet to the finish line. The trailer will connect to your robot by a downward pointing axle, four bricks off the floor, and three studs long. There will be a standard two wheeled trailer brought to the meeting which will be at least twelve studs wide, and twenty long, with a pair of wheels at the far end.
Obstacle Course Get to the finish line by overcoming a number of obstacles. Some might be easy to go over, but others might be better to just go around.
Crevice Crossing Move across the gaps between three tables placed side by side; the gap will be small to start with, but increase in distance with each run.
Brick sorter Sort four types of LEGO bricks dropped in your hopper into separate bins. There will be both white and black LEGO bricks, each in two sizes, 2x2 and 2x4s.
Photocopier Read an 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper, and copy what you see to a second sheet. The input will be a simple black and white image. You are obviously allowed to use a non-LEGO pen or marking instrument of your choice. Paper will be supplied.
Climbing a wall Climb a 4-foot high wall. The quarter inch thick wall has 1 inch diameter round holes, with centers vertically separated by 4 inches. The first hole is 4 inches above the ground. Your robot will be placed on the ground, in front of, but not touching the wall.
Candy dispenser Dispense a measured amount of candy (of your choice) when an American quarter is inserted. Reject all other denominations, as well as Canadian quarters (they are the same size, but can be picked up by a magnet) and plastic slugs which are the same size and shape, but not weight as a real quarter.
Summersaults Do a summersault or two, without falling off the table. The whole robot must turn.
Peanut Scramble Walk over a steep, deep bed of styrofoam peanuts without sinking in. Turn around and walk back. The slope will be increased with each run.
Robo Waiter Build a robot that can carry a tray with seven mini Lego soccer balls on it around a looping 3/4” black tape track.
Jousting Build a robot that will knock its opponent off a 6-foot long 2x6. Two parallel 2x6s with an inch between them are placed on the floor; robots start at opposite ends, one on each 2x6. Your robot may only touch the top surface of your own 2x6 and may not touch the opponent’s board at any time.
Clear the X Clear an ‘X’ of 13 2x2 Lego bricks from a one-meter square. The square will be marked out using black tape, and there will be no markings of any sort inside the square. Your robot starts at a random spot outside the square, facing the square. The bricks will be layed out in an ‘X’ pattern along the diagonals of the square, with three bricks along each arm of the X, and one in the center. The bricks along each arm will be 20 cm apart, starting from the center one. Once you’ve cleared all the bricks, your robot must also leave the arena to indicate it’s finished. Robots will have a size restriction.
Maze with Object Retrieval Build a robot that can navigate a maze, find an an object, and then return it to the starting point. As submitted: Mission impossible (Maze) a bot navigates a maze, retrieves an object and then navigates its way back to the starting point. There is a time limit
Axle sorter Sort technic axles by size. Fifty axles are placed in your hopper, distribute them into bins according to size.
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