TETRIX/VEX Challenge (use either robot hardware) There will be two events for the May Madness 2010 Challenge –The Grand Challenge - completely autonomous –The Land Mine Challenge – combination of autonomous and remote control UPDATED: 11:45 AM

Land Mine Challenge The game fits into a 12’*12’ arena. The game is played by two teams of two robots per team. The game consists of a 15 second autonomous period and a 1 minute 45 second remote control period. The land mines sit on a one inch piece of PVC that is 6 inches high The balls are available from Toys-r-Us and cost about for 100 balls. You can order them online for plus shipping.

12’ Red Landmine Blue Landmine Center Scoring Area 2’*2’ Robot Starting Area Side Scoring Boxes Blue Team Robot Challenge Setup 30” 15”

12’ Picture a the right is the layout of the Bomb Retrieval Challenge. The square scoring zone is in the center of the ring. The bombs are located at the corner locations of concentric squares. 2’ * 2’ square 4’ * 4’ square 6’ * 6’ square 8’ * 8’ square

To score landmines must be placed in the rectangular safe zones on the sides of the playing field or in the square safe zone in the middle. [Updated 3/15/10] Landmines on the side zones are worth one point per landmine when scored in the remote control section of the game. Landmines placed in the center scoring zone are worth 3 points a piece in the remote control section of the game. All points scored in the autonomous section of the game are multiplied by six.

Penalties Your opponents landmines are very dangerous. If you knock one of your opponents landmines off of its holder your robot is disabled for the remainder of the match. (the referee will instruct you to place your remote control on the ground) If you knock your own landmine off of its holder you continue to play. If your landmine rolls into the other teams landmine and knocks it off of its holder your robot is disabled.

Photos of Center Scoring Ramp Following 4 slides were added on : 11:45 AM

Photos of Center Scoring Ramp

Dimensions 29 ¾” 27 ½” 14 7/8” 1.5” 4.75” Height: 3 1/16”

The Grand Challenge At the event you will be given a course that you will not have previously seen. You will be tasked to program your robot to navigate this course. Robot programming and troubleshooting will happen the day of the event. To prepare for Grand Challenge your robot should be able to do the following: –Autonomously drive perfectly straight –Autonomously turn at various angles –Autonomously stop when it sees an obstacle (the obstacles will be 5” * 9” Kleenex boxes) –Resume travel when the obstacle is removed –Travel up and down small slopes –The road that your robot travels on will be 24 inches wide, the robot must stay on the road. If the robot leaves the road, this will be considered its distance travelled. Additional points can be earned if your robot can: –Deliver a land mine from the land mine challenge game at a specific spot. –Autonomously alert someone if it has run into an obstacle. Scoring –The robot that travels the furthest on the Grand Challenge course wins –If multiple teams complete the course ties will be determined by how fast the robot completed the task.

The Grand Challenge To prepare for Grand Challenge your team should have: –A robot that has been tested –Functions that are capable of passing parameters (e.g. degrees of turning, number of encoder counts, speed) –A robot with sensors designed to see out in front. –A robot that has additional sensors that may be able to be used to recalibrate the robots location. Additional points can be earned if your robot can: –A gripper or some delivery mechanism that allows the robot to deliver the mines to a specific location on the path.