ROBOT CONTEST FALL 2011

This years contest will be an organ transfer contest in which teams will transfer organs (white nylon balls atop pvc tubing) from one turntable to another. The ball itself can in no way be touched in the transfer process; only the pvc tubing beneath the ball. The objective is to score as many points as possible by transferring the cargo. Points will be awarded based on which pvc pieces individual teams choose to use for transferring their organs. The normal piece of pvc has a .6in diameter opening at the top to balance a ball on. An organ successfully transferred on this piece of pvc is worth 1 point. Next is a piece of pvc with a 1/8in thick piece of acrilyc glued to the top with an opening of .4in. An organ successfully tranfered atop this is worth 3 points. Finally, teams may choose to use the piece of pvc with a 1/8in thick piece of acrylic glued to the top with only a .2in opening. Successfully transferring an organ atop this is worth 5 points. The speed at which cargo is transfered is only a tie breaker. The overall time each team will have to transfer their organs is 5 minutes. Teams may choose to fill all eight slots on their turntables or not. There is no requirement of how many organs must transferred or what point levels a team chooses. The only requirement is that a minimum of one organ must be transferred and a maximum of eight (no modifying the turntables to house more then eight organs). Also be advised that this is a careful operation so if a team drops even one organ in the transfer process, that team will receive zero points for that run.

Rules:

No part of the robot can interact with the ball that sits on top of the PVC (no supporting the ball in anyway).
Neither the pvc nor the acrylic ball may be modified in any way.
The location of the pvc slots on the turntable can not be changed (we have to know where the pvc will start and end).
The turntable may not be mechanically coupled in any way. We will be adjusting the angle of the receiving turntable and when we do, the delivering turntable may not change orientation.
At the beginning of the contest, the robots must fit within the boundaries of the large playing fields provided. The robots may move outside of the playing field boundaries while operating but must fit when the contest begins.
If a ball falls off during the contest, that is a no scoring round. You may then reset and then run again until we are tired of watching it run. (if you provided cookies we are more likely to stay interested)
If there are any questions about the rules please ask!
Each transferred tube and organ is transferred from a numbered position on the sending turntable and must be transferred to the corresponding numbered slot on the receiving turntable (ie. 0 --> 0, 1 --> 1, 2 --> 2 ...).

Turntable Resources

1. Turntable Fabrication Instructions

2. Turntable CAD (For Reference)

Comments