RoboChallenge 2008
Date: 27th of February, 2008
Contest theme: Robot Football
The competition initially called “ROBOT FOTBAL” marked the beginning of RoboChallenge. It was designed to be a competition for those students passionate about applied projects and also for those who never touched a soldering gun but are willing to try something new.
Regulations:
Autonomous robots with maximum dimensions of 20x20 cm, which move around a football field and has the following characteristics:
- field dimension : 2.5m-1.25 m
- sideboard dimension: 6 cm
- gates dimensions: 30 cm
- balls diameter: 4 cm
- gates are 12 cm tall and are illuminated by a white LED placed at the center of each gate at a height of 16 cm
- box is a semicircle with a radius of 22 cm
The field is divided into 2 halves, one white and one black and is surrounded by a white side board. The gate on the white side is black and the gate on the black side is white. The white LED above every gate is strong enough to be detected from anywhere on the field.
The robots will be equipped with IR sensors which detect the field’s color in order to establish if they are on their own side of the field or the opponent one. Optical sensors are also used to detect the gate, to avoid the side boards and the opponents. Each robot was built from scratch out of what came in handy for each team (wood, metal, plastic etc.) and each one of them was original in shape, locomotion system and ball collector system.
The match works by an one to one system, and each of them lasts 3 minutes without extra time granted.
On the game surface will be 16 orange ping pong balls, 8 on each half of the field, and the winner is designated according to the number of goals scored, not by the number of matches won.
Scoring:
Goal: 10 points
Both stuck: -5 points
Stuck on the sideboard: -10 points
If the two robots get stuck together, they return each to 180 ° and will be penalized by 5 points. If any robot is blocked by the side board, it will turn 180 ° and will be penalized by 10 points.
Contestants:
There were 13 robots, divided into 2 groups, from which everyone competed with each other. From these groups the first 4 robots have advanced that played the semifinal and the final.
Winners:
1st place: team BATTLESTAR ROBOTICA
members: Adrian Gașpar, Alexandru Caramihai, Alexandru Nan, Cristian Clepcea, Laura Mateiaș, Valentin Velican
2nd place: team COPACUL MISTIC
members : Andrea Major, George Papuc, Mircea Pleşca
3rd place: team RAZBOINICUL LUMINII
members: Andrei Stângaciu, Cătălin Teodor
Awards:
Prizes consisted of development boards, books and electronic components.
Media coverage:
The first edition sparked media interest by live appearances at: Antena 3, Antena 1 and Pro TV; Realitatea TV reports and articles in Libertatea, Jurnalul Național and PC Magazine.
Photo gallery: press here to see the photo album
