DPRG mailing list archives: [DPRG] Contest rules

Fri Oct 3 00:04:01 CDT 2003

hmm, this dovetails with a book i'm reading about not micro-managing.  i see your point of stating goals, then letting people find the best solution.  kind of like putting a hypothetical black box over a line follower course, as long as the robot reaches any predetermined waypoints, observable by holes in the black box, then fastest time wins. 

or another analogy might be a horse race, no one would  consider giving the race to the second fastest horse (assuming no rules were broken) just because the second horse looked or ran prettier...lol

but i've not run at a DPRG event, and am only interested from a intellectual exercise point of view.

but i could see a two stage contest, for example, first stage simply best time wins.  second contest would have physical restrictions on the course, like a narrow 'hallway' where each touching of the walls caused penality points.  this would reward bots that waggled less.  or a less than 90 degree intersection that was a shortcut, etc...  

but the bigger point of more rules, and how they only hold some back until a work around is found, is valid.  and could lead to getting bogged down in rule bickering.  so when ever possible physical limitations could be used, like a short tunnel to limit size.  or whatever limits are needed
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: JonWms at aol.com 
  To: dprglist at dprg.org 
  Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 8:34 PM
  Subject: Re: [DPRG] Contest rules

  It's unfortunate, I think, that objective contests (how fast can you go from point a to point be and back) have been burdened with subjective judging criteria.  Can you imagine if the 100 meter dash was decided not by who crossed the finish-line first, but rather an aggregate score of his/her time, plus choice of fashion, plus good or bad looks....

  I sincerely believe that subjective judging should be separated from objective events.

  -- Jon Williams
  -- Parallax

  In a message dated 10/2/2003 8:13:58 PM Central Standard Time, earlwbollinger at comcast.net writes:
    Rules only slow down a really serious competitor for  short while, until
    they come up with the loopholes.
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