DPRG mailing list archives: DPRG: Contest questions

Wed Feb 19 08:03:31 CST 1997

Howdy from Italy,

My name is Clay Timmons and I'm fairly new to the group.
I'm currently on assignment in Italy for a couple of months
and regret that I can't make the meetings.  I have a few questions
about the upcomning robotics contest.  I saw the video of the
'93 contest and the major problem seemed to be getting the
robot to travel straight enough. 

  1)  Are there any contest descriptions/rules that
      can be put on the web page? 

        My questions may already be answered if such
        info is available.

  2)  Will there be a line from one goal to the other
      to allow for line following robot designs?

        I think this would be great. Use 1" wide masking tape 
        for the line. Robots should be in categories so that
        line-following bots are compared with line followers.
        Robots that have more sophisticated navigation
        and don't need a line are in another category.  

  3)  What is the distance from one "goal" to the 
      other?  Also what is the width of a goal?

        I'm guessing about 30 feet across the width of the
        Infomart room we usually meet in and perhaps a goal
        6 feet wide.  I estimate that it will be possible
        to make it to the opposite goal and back if the
        robot can maintain a straight course with no
        more that about 5 degress of error. It may be 
        possible to use wheel encoders or a compass to
        keep the robot going straight enough for this distance.

  4)  Is it allowable to place a beacon in each of the goal areas?

        A little infared emitter would be wonderfull for the 
        robot to navigate to. 

I have plenty of spare time to think about robot design now that
I'm living in a hotel room in a foreign country.  If any club member
has 68HC11 questions or has any comments or questions about Italy
please e-mail me.  If your traveling to Rome anytime soon I have
many tips.  Next weekend I'm off to Pompei.

Ciao,

Clay Timmons   ctimmons at asic.sc.ti.com