Battery Buggy

Overview
Battery Buggy is an event that requires participants to design and build a moving, battery-powered vehicle capable of traveling a certain distance and stopping as close to that distance as possible. These devices need to meet many parameters, such as size, total power used, types of power used (has to be electric!), and safety restrictions. The "buggy" must be designed with an adjustable mechanism of some sort to allow for different distances to be traveled. Battery Buggy was a real event for a few years back around the turn of the century, but has since only seen life as a rare trial event.

At the Competition
At competitions, the event coordinators select a "target distance" within a pre-determined range (it was five to ten meters when I did the event), and your device must be capable of getting as close as possible to this "target distance" while maintaining a straight line of motion (no side-to-side deviation). The possible distances are rather spaced at regional competition (0.5 meter intervals when I did it) but shrink gradually as you move on to nationals (0.01 meter intervals when I did it). Participants place their buggy at the starting line, and announce to the judges that their run is about to commence, at which point they let the buggy run. Teams aren't allowed to touch their buggy from that point until it stops moving. Two runs are given, with the score of the better run being used for ranking. Obviously, the closer you are to the "target distance," the more points you will receive. However, teams also score points by telling the judges how long it will take for their buggy to travel the "target distance", and the closer teams are to this time, the more points they will receive. Because of the nature of this event, a great deal of testing is required before competition. Teams must practice traveling the various intervals while recording the time it takes to travel such distances, and also test on many different surfaces (carpet, hardwood, tile flooring, etc.).

Misc
There are many ways of creating an adjustable system, including but not limited to through the use of a threaded rod/nut combination, the use of a limit switch, or simply charging rechargeable batteries to an ideal voltage. Innovation was slowing to a halt, however, so the event was removed in favor of Robo-Billiards back in the 2002-2003 season.