Robot Arm at Nationals

[jander14indoor]

My remarks are now posted to the National Tournament website.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[bernard]

EVENT INFO: We will NOT be using the printouts provided on the national site. There will be three competition areas in use for the national tournament. The competition area is laid out on the same two piece boards used for Robocross at previous national tournaments. The boards are individually 2 by 4 ft, assembled 4 by 4 ft. There is a nominal 1X2 fence around the perimeter, the competition area is roughly centered on the board. The qtr round moldings used by robocross have been removed. The competition area is marked out so that the North zone is defined entirely by the inner edge of the tape around its perimeter. The dice are NOT located as shown in the reference illustrations, but as defined by the words in the rules. This means they are adjacent to the outer edge of the robot square, not the outer edge of the tape defining that square. Items will be located by hand on reference marks drawn on the playing field, by the event supervisors. I have not measured that precision, but would expect it to be less than +/- 5 mm or so of the location specified by the rules. Note, the details are subject to circumstances (I might crash my car on the way to the tournament and smash the boards…) up to the start of the competition, but we will make every effort to ensure that all three playing fields are set up consistently with each other on the day of the tournament.

[Bazinga+]

I would ask this as an official question but not sure if its worthy of the process. During the 'preperation time' to 'set up and test the device in the competition area', do you guys think the robot arm can interact with the scorable items? Since the rules reference the competition area and say competitors may 'test their device' I would think we could.

[windu34]

I would ask this as an official question but not sure if its worthy of the process. During the 'preperation time' to 'set up and test the device in the competition area', may the robot arm interact with the scorable items? Since the rules reference the competition area and say competitors may 'test their device' I would think we could.

I would think it would depend on the event supervisor. Some have allowed me to while other have not, but regardless, I don't think it would help much so I don't see why not if you requested to.

[jander14indoor]

Please note, the event description, particularly of the boards, has been modified on the national tournament site.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[chess884]

Is it at all possible for the "+/- 5 mm" to be reduced at all (closer to the description in the rules)? It seems to me that that implies a total of a 1 cm increase in range of where the items could be placed. I realize it can be difficult to set up the field, especially ping pong balls, but +/- 5 mm is a pretty substantial range. I don't have an autonomous arm but it seems unfair to unintentionally hurt those competing that way and might take away from the large amounts of practice and engineering that go into the arms.

[bernard]

Is it at all possible for the "+/- 5 mm" to be reduced at all (closer to the description in the rules)? It seems to me that that implies a total of a 1 cm increase in range of where the items could be placed. I realize it can be difficult to set up the field, especially ping pong balls, but +/- 5 mm is a pretty substantial range. I don't have an autonomous arm but it seems unfair to unintentionally hurt those competing that way and might take away from the large amounts of practice and engineering that go into the arms.

I'm sure those running the event will make it as close to +/- 0 mm as possible and the +/- 5 mm is to make teams aware that it is possible the items and taping might not be perfect.

[chalker]

Is it at all possible for the "+/- 5 mm" to be reduced at all (closer to the description in the rules)? It seems to me that that implies a total of a 1 cm increase in range of where the items could be placed. I realize it can be difficult to set up the field, especially ping pong balls, but +/- 5 mm is a pretty substantial range. I don't have an autonomous arm but it seems unfair to unintentionally hurt those competing that way and might take away from the large amounts of practice and engineering that go into the arms.

Here's an interesting experiment for you to perform: grab a few of the items from the rules and some tape. Make some tape marks on table and line the items up with the tape. Take them off, walk around the table and do it again. Repeat this process 30 times, taking no more than a total of 10 mins. How many times did you get all the items perfectly aligned? I guarantee it wasn't all 30 times, and I also bet some of the errors were several mm off.

Part of Science Olympiad is learning that the real world has inconsistencies and being prepared to adapt to them, no matter how insignificant they may be. Another big part is that everyone, including event supervisors, has limitations in what they can do, be it due to capabilities, resources, or available time.

[EMC314]

A pencil is only 8 mm thick, so +/- 5mm gives a variance range greater than the object's width. I am sure everyone will do their best to setup the courses precisely and use straight edges,t-squares, etc, but did they maybe mean +/- 0.5mm variance?

[Bazinga+]

Is it at all possible for the "+/- 5 mm" to be reduced at all (closer to the description in the rules)? It seems to me that that implies a total of a 1 cm increase in range of where the items could be placed. I realize it can be difficult to set up the field, especially ping pong balls, but +/- 5 mm is a pretty substantial range. I don't have an autonomous arm but it seems unfair to unintentionally hurt those competing that way and might take away from the large amounts of practice and engineering that go into the arms.

Part of my device is autonomous and a 5mm difference still enables it to function properly. While a smaller error would be nice, there and very many solutions which could overcome the 5mm error in piece placement.