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NERC 2012

National Engineering Robotics Contest 2012

1.

Introduction

National Engineering Robotics Contest (NERC) is a joint project by National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) and STEM Careers Project (HEC) to promote research in robotics and its related fields in Pakistan. This contest provides a common environment for the integration and evaluation of various mechanical and electronics designs, control and path planning algorithms and agent architectures. The aim of this years contest is to Build an autonomous robot which is capable of searching a maze for colored boxes and place balls in them according to pre-specified order. Over the years NERC has grown increasingly popular among students and university engineering departments across the country. We value the interest that our participants have shown and pledge to bring exciting new challenges every year for the advancement of robotics community at an increasingly wider scale. We welcome your participation in 8th National Engineering Robotics Competition (NERC 2012). Robotics is a buzz word at todays technology forefronts. Due to exponential advancements in fields like high performance computing, computer vision, computer networks, material sciences and power electronics, the growth experienced by robotics in past few years is unprecedented. Robotics is the only field which can add precision while replacing the slow manual labor in contemporary industrial world. Thus this field faces enormous pressure from industry to produce all purpose mobile manipulator robots which can perform simple tasks like grab, navigate and place objects at desired locations autonomously. This years contest theme has been revamped where the contestants are expected to come up with autonomous robots that are capable of navigating and searching their way inside a maze locating three different colored boxes and placing golf balls of respective colors in them in pre-specified order. The qualifying teams will compete against each other in knockout format. There are two categories under which contestants will be evaluated; Indigenous Robot category, and Modular Robot Category. The purpose of this contest is to develop a sense of problem-solving, technical design and ingenuity among the contestants.

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a.

Category 1 - Indigenous Robots

Indigenous robots are the ones that are constructed from scratch. Their mechanical structure, controls etc. are designed and fabricated by the teams themselves. The electronic control modules (including all electronic boards and motor drivers etc.) should be designed and manufactured by the students.

b.

Category 2 - Modular Robots

Modular/Lego robots are ones in which ready-made kits are used, for example Lego or Vex Robotics kits.

Indigenous Robots
2. The Contest Arena
a. The Contest arena, figure 1, consists of two identical mazes, red maze where red team will run their robot and blue maze where blue team will run their robot.

b.

The maze is made of wooden walls of height 15cm. All the walls will be painted white. The wooden floor of the maze will be painted blue for blue maze and red for red maze.

c.

Throughout the maze width of the pathway for the robot is 50cm I,e distance between the walls of the maze is 50cm.

d.

There are three different colored boxes placed at the predefined locations in the maze. These boxes are made of wood. The dimensions of the box is 15x15x15 cm.

e.

Each maze has four gates X1, X2, Y1, Y2. During a match one of the gate either X1 or X2 will be opened. Similarly, either gate Y1 or Y2 will be opened.

f.

Height of the gate will be same as the height of the walls i.e. 15cm

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Figure 1
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3.

Robot Operation

The qualifying teams will compete with each other in a knockout format. In each match two teams will compete against each other, running their robots side by side in the contest arena. Teams will be declared as a red team or blue team based on the coin toss before every match. Red and Blue teams will run their robots in the arena of their respective colors. Once started the robot must be self-controlled without any human intervention. Remote-control of any sort (wired or wireless) CANNOT be used. Contestants are NOT allowed to touch their robots or enter the Contest Arena after startup. The robot must find its way through the maze, locate and identify the colored boxes, pot the preloaded balls of respective colors in their boxes in the pre specified order and then exit the maze through the exit line. However, no part of the robot is allowed to cross the exit line until it has completed the task (i.e. correctly placed three balls in the right boxes) .The robot crossing the exit line first will win the match and will proceed to the next round and the losing team will be knocked out.

4.

Navigating through the maze

Robot should navigate through the maze using any suitable technique. During its motion robot might touch the walls of the maze without displacing or damaging them but robot is not allowed to use any sort of tactile sensor to sense the wall.

5.

Ball Potting Technique

The position of the colored boxes will be interchanged randomly for each match however, for the same match the position of the boxes will be same for both competing teams so the robot has to detect the color of the box in order to pot the correct ball. The Robot must not use any destructive or dangerous methods to pot the ball in the the box. The Robot may touch the box for sensing purposes, as long as it does not move or damage the box. Any team that damages the box or the arena will be disqualified. Robot may use gravity for potting the balls in the box. Robot must not use any harmful substances such as oil, petrol etc. in its operation that can damage the arena. The Robot CANNOT split after the start of the game, only one Robot is allowed to compete at a time. During its operation robot is NOT allowed to extend any extension/support for any purpose, the area of the robot should remain the same throughout the operation i.e. it should fit in 30 x 30cm squared box. Robot has to approach the box and then deliver/pot the ball in it; robot is not allowed to throw the ball.

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The task is completed when three out of three balls are potted in the boxes of appropriate color in pre specified order.

6.

Rules for Potting the Balls

The Robot has to pot the ball in the following order. a. Red Ball b. Blue Ball c. Green Ball i.e. robot has to pot first the red ball, then blue ball and then green ball. Position of the red and blue box will be interchanged randomly with each other so if while navigating through the maze robot comes across the blue box first it is not allowed to pot the ball in it, in order to successfully complete the task, robot should find the red box, pot the red ball in it and then come back to the blue box to pot the blue ball in it

7.

Robot Size and Weight

The robot must fit within 30 cm X 30 cm square at all times of its operation. It is not allowed to extend any extensions at any time of its operation. If the area of the robot base is more than 30 cm X 30 cm square but less than 35 cm X 35 cm square then points will be deducted. The maximum permissible height of the robot is 30 cm. Any robot which does not fit in 35 cm X 35 cm square or exceeds a height of 30 cm will be disqualified. All robots will be carefully measured. All sensors mounted on the robot will be counted as part of the robots total dimensions. If contestants want to add a flag, hat or other purely decorative, nonfunctional items to the robot, they may do so. The decorations may be removed for measurement purposes. The weight of robot excluding decorations must not exceed 9 kg. Penalties, as detailed in Section 14 below, will be levied if the robot does not fulfill the size and/or weight criteria.

8.

Sensors

Robot is not allowed to use tactile sensor of any type for sensing the walls. Robot is also not allowed to use SONARs.

9.

Power Supply

The robot must be battery-powered. The robot must not have any wired connections with its surroundings. Voltage of the machines electrical power 5

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source must not exceed 48 Volt DC. Power sources that are considered dangerous or unsuitable by the Contest Officials shall not be permitted.

10.

Teams

a. The Robots can be built by teams of currently registered students from Engineering Institutions, Polytechnic Institutions, schools etc. Each team can comprise of Maximum 6 members. b. If the students from two different Institutes/Universities join hands and form a team in collaboration then the name of the Institute/University with maximum number of students in such a team would be registered.

11.

Duration of Match

a. Each match will be of maximum 3 minutes. b. Teams will be given 1 minute for setting up the Robot at the start point c. Robot can start at the instant when the start signal is given and a whistle is blown. Robot must be constructed so that it can be started in minimum possible steps d. Once the Robot moves, team members will not be allowed to touch the Robot or enter in the Contest Arena e. Timing shall start once the start signal is given and the whistle is blown. f. The team completing the task(potting the balls in respective slots in pre specified order and exiting the maze) first will be winner of the match. g. If neither of the teams is able to finish the task in 3 minutes the team scoring maximum points will be declared as the winner of the match. h. If both the teams have scored same points but are not able to complete the task in allocated time slot decision of the winner will be on judges discretion who will determine which robot is closer to finish the task first.

12.

Retry

If the robot is strayed due to some reason, retries are allowed. There is no limitation on the number of retries and a team can take as many retries within the 3 minutes duration of the match. No Points will be deducted for retries. Once a 6

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team wants to take a retry a team can pick up its robot reload any balls which have been potted and reset and restart from the start zone. This can be done by any of the members of the team. For each retry, robots must be started again from the Start Zone with all the three balls reloaded. Separate time for individual retries will NOT be recorded or maintained. When a team takes a retry it is only allowed to restart the robot changing the microcontroller or reprogramming the robot is Not Allowed. A team may change the batteries of the robot if required.

13.

Points
a. Potting the ball in a box b. Potting the ball in correct colored box c. Crossing a gate for 1st time d. Potting the ball in correct sequence e. After completing the task crossing the finish line 10 points (Max 30) 10 points (Max 30) 10 points (Max 20) 20 points 20 points

14.
a.

Deduction of Points
The robot fits in an area of 30 cm X 30 cm square No penalty 5 points Disqualified Disqualified No penalty 5 points Disqualified Disqualified

b. Oversize Robot (35 cm X 35 cm square) c. Oversize Robot (exceeding 35 cm X 35 cm square)

d. Robot height exceeding limit (30 cm) e. f. Robot weighs less than 9 kg Overweight Robot (Weight between 9 and 11 kg)

g. Overweight Robot (Weight exceeding 11 kg) h. Damaging the arena/wall/box

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15.

Rules

a. The Contest judges may stop any robot at any time if they feel that it is performing, or is about to perform, any action that is dangerous or hazardous to people or equipment. b. All Electronic Circuitry must be designed and fabricated by the Contestants themselves. No Off-the-Shelf Boards will be allowed. c. Maximum effort in the design and fabrication of the robot should be generated by contestants themselves. d. Contestants are allowed to use only certain electronics components, list for which will be provided by NERC organizing committee (details at Section 16). e. In all matters of interpreting the rules before and during the Contest and in any issues not covered by these rules, the decisions of the Contest Judging Committee will be final. f. Additional information regarding the contest rules and regulations may be found in the FAQs and will be considered as part of the theme and rules. New FAQs are uploaded frequently so keep watching the FAQ corner for new information. g. Any correspondence with the NERC officials via E-mail telephone or any other means cannot be considered as part of the rules. FAQs and Rules are the only official documents for NERC 2012

16.

List of Components

a. One of the fundamental concepts of NERC is the provision of a level field for all participants where they can learn in detail about building, programming and controlling robots. In order to make NREC a truly national level competition where every team has the equal opportunity to win we have decided to provide a list of components that are easily available in the market. These components can be used to fabricate the complete robot in a very cost effective manner. To ensure a level playing field all contestants will be asked to fabricate the robots from the components specified in the list.

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b. The concept behind the provision of a robotics kit is to allow the students to come up with creative/innovative design of robots and algorithm from a standard set of resources. This will ensure that the team that has the most creative and innovative idea will perform well as opposed to the team that has allocated the maximum budget for building the robot. In addition students from all over Pakistan that cannot afford to build expensive and complicated robots can also compete effectively in the competition and have an equal opportunity to win. This is not a new concept since it has also been adopted by NASA (perhaps the greatest innovator in the field of robotics) for their FIRST ROBOTICS CONTEST. c. The list of components will be available on the NERC website shortly.

17.

Disqualification

The following behavior shall be considered for disqualification by the referee and the team could possibly be disqualified: a. Attempting to damage the game field b. Performing any act that fails to comply with the spirit of Fair Play

18.

Test Run

Contestants will be given time for trial run a day before the contest to calibrate their robot/sensors on the actual arena/game field.

19.

Qualifying Round

For qualifying rounds following rules will be observed, a. There will be NO head to head matches each team will individually run their robot. b. For all the teams participating in qualifying rounds maze will be same i.e. which gates are opened and the position of the colored boxes will be same. c. If the scores are equal decision will be made on time. d. Each team will be provided maximum of 3 minutes to run their robots.

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e. A team can take as many retries as it want(s) within 3 minutes without any penalty but only the total time taken by the team will be recorded. f. When the team is ready and the whistle is blown, time will be started. g. If a robot is not able to successfully complete the task then the time when team will call it off will be recorded as the finish time.

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