C.R.A.W.LAB

When: Tuesday, November 22nd
Where: Girard Park Circle Parking Garage
RSVP: Dr. Joshua Vaughan

This December, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) will host the 2016 Maritime RobotX contest. A team of UL Lafayette students and researchers are competing in the contest and need help. Luckily, MCHE 201 students have the talent and skills to design and build robots to help them.

The Competition

On November 22nd, beginning at 4:45pm, the RobotX contest will be held in the Girard Park Circle Parking Garage. There will be two events. Prior to the two events, Dr. Vaughan will give a short presentation introducing the contest.

Design Review:

From 5 — 6pm, a panel of judges will perform a design review of each machine. The teams must describe their machines quickly and clearly to the judges that visit, who will evaluate each team on aesthetics, ingenuity, and presentation.

RobotX Contest:

Following the design review, the student robots will compete in a head-to-head competition on the representation of the RobotX competition waters shown in Figure 1. The robots have thirty seconds to Autonomously Navigate, Find and Retrieve Beacons, Detect and Deliver, and Return to Port and Dock.

Competition Details

The student robots can earn, or lose, points based on their robot's performance in each category of the RobotX contest. The details of each is listed below.

Autonomously Navigate: There are two buoys (plastic cones) in each zone. The team must demonstrate the ability to navigate by not disturbing these buoys. For each buoy that is disturbed from its initial location, the team will lose 10 points. For each buoy that is knocked over or knocked out of the team’s zone, the team will lose lose 20 points.

Find and Retrieve Beacons: In each zone, surrounding the center section, there are four acoustic beacons (miniature Tabasco bottles) that teams can collect. For each small beacon collected and placed completely in the team’s data analysis center, the team will earn 10 points. There are also larger beacons (plastic bowling pins) located at the edges between the team zones. For each of these larger beacons collected and placed completely in the team’s data analysis center, the team will earn 25 points.

Detect and Deliver: Prior to the each competition round, each team will be given three table tennis balls. For each ball delivered in the outer ring, the team will earn 5 points. For each one placed into the rotating inner zone, the team will earn 20 points. In order to earn the points for the inner zone, the ball must be completely contained in the inner zone, including in the vertical dimension (i.e. Unlike other sections, the volume of air above the inner zone is not considered part of it.). If balls are not completely contained in the inner zone, but are still within the outer ring, outer-ring points will be awarded as appropriate.

Return to Port and Dock: Once the mission is completed, the device must return to port and dock. To return to port, the device must be completely outside the team’s zone at the end of the round of competition. Doing so will earn 20 points. The device must also dock upon returning to port. To do so, the device must be completely contained within the team’s start zone at the end of the round of competition. Docking successfully will earn 15 points, in addition to the points for returning to port.

For more information, see the full set of competition rules. You can also have a look at the hard work the students have put in already in the class flickr album.

Acknowledgements

SparkFun Electronics was kind enough to give a substantial discount on the robot kits used in this class. We are grateful for their support.