Multiple questions

Question

Hello,
We are first runners, and we have the following questions. Thanks for your time.

Questions

Question 1
Page 4
"All elements of the robot must be designed by the participants"
To what extent will this rule be enforced ? For example, is it allowed to use complete IC packs and/or commercially available H bridge stepper controllers and/or complete circuits for finding the location through a camera and computing matrix math?

Question 2
Page 9
Where will the RFID be located (on the bottom of the plant, on the side, etc.)?

Question 3
Page 10
"certain deposit supports are for the exclusive use of each team, while the others are not protected from theft."
What are those deposits? Are they planters? (6 and 7)
Are they drop areas? (1 and 2)
Can we take already planted plants or other equipment from the opposing team? If so, if we touch a planted plant in those areas, are we going to get full points?

Question 4
Page 11
In case of an accident, if our pots get knocked over by the other team, what will happen? Does the pot count for us? Is there a penalty involved?

Question 5
Page 11
"Delicate plants: can only be planted in planters. Respect for plants and their environments awards points."
Is it necessary ("only") to be in planters, or is it just for extra (if you respect) points?

Question 6
Page 11
"To be considered valid for a team, a plant must be upright and any part of its contact surface, or its pot,
with the ground."
Does "any part" it refers to the whole surface or a single point of it?

Question 7
Page 15
"evaluation during a match on a dynamic display device"
Does it refer to the current points of the robot (live feed) or the estimation of the points, or both?

Question 8
Page 21
"the device has to be triggered by pulling the end of a cord at least 500mm long"
What will this sequence start? The cord pulling is for the start of the match or the start of the preparation time? Is it also possible to consider making a change to the starting process in order to simplify it and make it more reliable? What would happen in the case of a cord removal, that would happen before the other.

Question 9
Page 21
"All teams are required to equip its robot with a system for detecting opposing team’s robots"
Under what conditions is it required to perform? It is required to detect the opposing robot, but who will have priority if a collision course is detected? You talked about detection; is it required to have avoidance systems?

Question 10
Page 21
"minimal size of a 70 mm diameter circle and with a maximum size of a 100 mm square"
These are the dimensions of the embedded beacon support system. Can you please clarify the meaning of convex hullx envelope (maybe provide a picture) because it doesn’t translate to English? What’s the shape of the so called "embedded support system"?

Question 11
Page 21
"However, a team may choose not to equip its robot with an embedded beacon support system. In this case, if the opposing team requires a beacon support, and the use of it (either to detect the mast or to place a beacon), the team or the robot concerned may be forfeited for that particular game"
Is it optional to have an embedded beacon support or mandatory?

Question 12

not existing (YET) // typo

Question 13
Page 21
"the beacon support must be as full as possible"
Could you please clarify that? What's the meaning of as full as possible?

Question 14
Page 21
"SIMA must respect the same building and safety constraints as robots (Emergency stop, avoidance, laser, bag for LIPO battery,...)."
Does the same rule apply for the emergency stop button in SIMA’s and the main robot? If so, the emergency stop button will be much larger than the SIMA robot. Secondly, the avoidance system in which occasions should it trigger? For example, is it necessary to detect the opposing team's robot and/or opposing SIMAs and/or our own team’s robot?

Question 15
Page 23
"At the opponent’s request and only if justified, the robots could be equipped with a beacon support to fix an opponent’s beacon above"
Can you clarify that? What's justified and what's not? What's the use of the so called "embedded beacon"?

Question 16
Page 23
Where will the embedment beacon be located; "on board" means on the robot, while "430mm above the playing area"?

Question 17
Page 24
"In the name of fair play, the elements used for this beacon must have real utility. Any "useless" or weighted beacon will be refused by the organization"
How are you going to police this rule, and how is a useless beacon or action camera is defined?

Question 18
Page 24
Are the beacons going to be provided as "these models will not be constructional" because if the model is not constructional it's not possible for us to construct one?

Question 19
Page 24
"shared platform" will the beacons and/or platforms be shared, and how will the platform be divided?

Question 20
Page 27
Appendix H.2
How are the robots going to be switched on in the case of the cord? What happens if one cord is removed faster than the other?

Question 21
Page 33
In the finals, the winner will be decided by the number of points or the number of wins. If it's for the number of points, is it collective, or is it only from the finals?

Thank you so much for your time. We have checked the FAQ, but we have not found a definitive answer.

Comments

Not an official response

Welcome! Good luck for your first time!

That's a lot of questions :p

Please use the section IDs (ex: D.9.c), instead of pages

1) These are OK. The first two are obviously OK, and even a JeVois camera is OK.

2) Bottom of the plant, as described during the presentation of the rules (not sure where is it written, though

5) Is it necessary ("only") to be in planters. Fragile plants not in planters are dead.

6) Partial contact of the bottom is enough. The wording is a but strange, both in French and English.

7) You can do whatever you want. My robot updates the current state, but it could be it's estimation of the end result. The only thing that matters is the result at the end of the 100 seconds. And it must not change after the 100 seconds (so that the referees can read it).

8) The start of the match. It will not be changed. You can see matches on YouTube to have an idea.

9) You are required to brake. It is thoroughly tested by a referee during the homologation, using a wooden robot moved by hand. Disabling the collision avoiding system is one of the worst offence, don't do that :p

There are cases of two very fast robot that collide slightly, it can be ok sometimes, if both brake, just not enough, and nothing is damaged. But that's up to the referees, they can also stop the match or one of the robot.

10) That' a typo: convex hull envelope. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convex_hull

11) Optional, but then you would be automatically forfeit against most of the teams (ex: my robot can only detect robots with a mast). Just build a robot with a mast.

12)

13) Be easily detectable. Don't leave transparent/see-through sections.

14) The button is >20mm. The sima is >60mm.

Yes, collisions are not acceptable . Tip : if your robot stops at 90s, no need to detect SIMAs.

15) That's for historic reason: one team tried to get their mast-less opponent out for the match, by claiming that they needed a beacon. The beacon was an empty soda can, that they was not actually used.

On the other hand, some teams have actual embedded beacons : retro-recflectors, ultrasonic beacons, etc.

16) on-board = on top of the robot, at an 'altitude' of 430mm above the area (350mm+80mm of mast)

17) See answer 15

18) Contractual, not constructional

The models are just examples. The tables already built with the older (but compatible) wooden structure are allowed

19) You may use the half that is on your side (and painted by your color)

20) "switched on" is poor wording. Your robot can be already on before, but will start when you use the cord.

If there is too much delay between the cords, the match can be re-started by order of the referee

21) The rules should be clear enough

(Still not an official answer :p)

---

Thank you! I hope to get an official answer to our other questions.

Answer 1

Good evening.

To ease the replying and referencing of the question, next time please open 1 topic by question and not 1 topic for multiple question, and do the reference of rule by the chapter number and not the page number.

1) Of course you dont have to build each component of your robot by yourself. You can purchase the component and assembly them to guild your robot.

2) Bottom of the plant basement

3) you have some protected planter and some protected drop area, you can find them location in the main playing area plan in D.2. All game element place in this protected drop zone are protected from theft, if you take an element on this zone then you will receved a penalty

4) the counting of point is done at the end of the match. No "in match" position will be take into account.

5) this is a necessary condition to have the point

6) it will be clarified with the next beta version of the rule (and of course the final version)

7) as for 4), the counting of point is done at the end of the match. So you can do what you want during the match

8) It the match sequence. It's the same way to start the match from 30 years, so you can looking for video of previous year to see how it managed by the experimented team.

9) It required to not have contact with the oppositite robot.

10) Yes it's about the shape of the support, I late you looking for convex hullx on google

11) It optional, but if the opposite team required the mast to detect your robot, you have to put it on to do the match.

12) not a question!

13) means : not empty part

14) the rules is clear, "same building and safety constraints". So you take the rule for the robot, and you put in on the SIMA

15) Yes it's justified, to know wath is a embedde beacons, please refer to the chapter G.2. EMBEDDED/ ON-BOARD BEACONS

16) please refer to the all chapter G. BEACON TRACKING SYSTEM

17) it will be police by the referee during the homologation

18) sentence not found on page 24

19) the plateform is split in two part, one for each team. See the table plan.

20) yes, it's the match sequence begining

21) please read the rule with attention

Comments

Thanks for the answers and sorry for the inconvenience.

---

"looking for convex hullx on google"
=> "Showing results for convex hull"

There is a typo on the English rules on F.5. (hullx => hull)
It probably should be uniformized btw, currently there is "convex envelope", "convex shell", "convex hull" and "convex hullx". In the French rules it is always "enveloppe convexe".