15IEEEStudentsLatin

AmericanRoboticsCompetition

RulesoftheOpencategory
20162017
Version1.2March2016

MilkerRobot

Summary

Introduction
Goals
Thescenario
TheField
Cows
Gloves
Terrines
TheMilkTank
ZonesMarkers
Lightingconditions
Dimensions
TheRobot
Rules
General
Penalties
Arenainitialconfiguration
Scores
Announcementsandrounds
Registration
Honorrules
Thejury
Onextraordinarysituationsduringcompetition

Introduction

The IEEE Latin American Robotics Competition proposes a challenge based on a real
problemfor2016and2017IEEEOpenCompetition.

There has been anincreasingdemandforqualityfoodintherecentpast.Consumerscallfor

organic products with a known origin and free of pesticides. With respect to animals,
consumers demand that the meat they consume comes from cage free and hormone free
animals. Additionally, there is anincreasingtrendtodemandthatanimalsarenotmistreated
duringthewholeproductionprocess.

The task focusesontheproblemofmilkingthecowsonsite,toavoidthestressinvolvedin

takingthemtothemilkingbarn,andthusimprovingmilkquality.

Figure1Scenario

Goals

GeneralGoals
Getasmuchmilkfromthecowsaspossibleandstoreitbackonthemilktank.

SpecificGoals
Gettheemptyterrinesfromthe
emptyterrineszone
Choose,locateandmilkacow,placingthemilkintheterrine
Taketheterrinewithmilktothe
milktank.
Pourthemilkfromtheterrinetothemilk.
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Thescenario

Thescenariorepresentsasmallcountrysidearea.Themainscenariocomponentsare:

TheField
TheCows
TheTerrines
TheMilkTank
TheMarkers

Eachcomponentisdescribedbelow.

TheField

Figure2Emptyscenario.

The field consists of a 4by3meterrectangle,madeofwood(melaminepanel15mmthick).

It is in turn divided in two 2 by 3 meter regions, the
corral zone and the
loading zone.
The
ground in the corral will be covered with natural grass (between 1 and 4 cm tall), while the
one in the loading zone will consist of grabble. A melamine wall will divide the environment
into these two separate regions. Two gaps and a door in the melamine wall will betheonly
passway between the regions. One of them is the
exchange zone and the other it is the
empty terrines zone
. Both, the
exchange zone and the
empty terrines zone consist of a 15
by 50 cm rectangle, and 10 cmofheight.Inthemiddle,thereisadoor whichallowsrobotto
gofromonezonetotheother.Thedoorbetweenbothzonesis50cmwide.
At the beginning of the competition the empty terrines will be
only in the
empty terrines
zone
,asshowninfigure2atthemidrightside.

Thearenadimensionsareshowninthefollowingimage.
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Figure3Arenadimensions

Cows

The cows will be made of wood with black and white rectangles, following a checkered
pattern. The dimensions of the cow are shown in the following image. A waterfilled latex
glove will hang from the middle of the body of each cow.Smallholesinthetipsoftheglove
fingerswillallowtherobottoextractthewaterfromthem.

Note: The cylinder that hangs from the middle of the cow, should bereplacedwith thelatex
glove, making sure the lowest tip is at 150 mm from the lower part of the cows body (see
figure5).

Figure4Cowdimensions.
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Figure5Cowlateralsidewithglove

Gloves

Thewaterwillbeinlatexsurgerygloveshangingfromthecenterofthecow.Thegloveswill
havesmallholesonthetips.Theglovessbrandshouldbeliketheoneshownbelow,as
theyweretheonesthatperformedbestinthepreliminarytests.

Figure6
Latexsurgerygloves

Figure7
Glovehanging.Thewatercomesoutonlywhenthegloveispressed.

Terrines
Theterrineswillconsistofstandardplasticcupsasyoucanseeinthenextimage.

Figure8
Terrine.

Therobotwillhavetopourthewaterfromtheglovesintotheterrines.Theglovesshouldbe
treatedwithcare.Damagetothegloveswillresultinafaultfortheteam.

TheMilkTank

Themilktankwillbea56cmdiameterby20cmtallplasticredcylinder.Thiscylindercould
beplacedinanypartoftheloadingzonebythejudges.Therobotshouldhavetheabilityto
findit.

ZonesMarkers

Therearesomeidentificationmarkspresentintheenvironmenttohelptherobots
localization.
Thesewillbeartoolkitlike20cmx20cmfiducialmarkers.Theemptyterrinezone,the
exchangezoneandthemilktankwillallhaveadistinctivemarker.Markersarepresented
below.

Figure9Emptyterrineszonemarker
(20cmx20cm).

Figure10Exchangezonemarker.

Figure11Milktankmarker.

Lightingconditions

Theenvironmentcanbeplacedinsideagymnasiumoronapatiooutdoors.Thus,some
partsofthescenecanbeexposedtodirectsunlight.Therefore,robotsshouldbeabletosee
inanyconditionsofinterior/exteriorlightingandthenrobotsmustbecalibratedbyteam
membersforthelightingconditionsofthescene.Oncethecompetitionbegins,theteams
willplayintheconditionsofthescenariowithoutandcanrecalibratebeforerestartingif
necessary.

Dimensions

Everydimensionspecifiedcouldhaveanerrorof+/3cm.Therobotsshouldbeabletodeal
withuncertaindimensions.

TheRobot

Therobot/smustbeautonomous.Itmustbeabletomovethroughthescenarioandachieve
hisgoalswithouthumanintervention,withoutanycommunicationwithacomputer,cell
phoneoranyexternaldevice.Therobotneedstoprocessthedataobtainedfromitssensors
inanonboardprocessor.Robotcanbeaerialorlandrobot.Theuseofmorethanone(1)
robotofanykindwillbepermitted.Thesumoftheweightofallrobotsofateamshouldnot
exceed10kg.Alltherobotsmustfitinsideacubeof50cmedgebeforethematchstarts

Belowitisthelistofcompatiblecharacteristicsonmeasuresofrobots:
Therobot(orrobots)mustbeinitializedjustbypushingasinglebutton(perrobot)in
anyroundofthecompetition.
Externalcommunicationwithanydeviceisprohibited.
Thescenariocannotbechangedbytherobot.
Teamswillbedisqualifiedfromthecompetitioniftheirrobotviolatesanyoftheabove
restrictions.
Onlyatbeginningeachcompetitorcouldsethis/herrobot/robotsinanypositionof
thefield.Incaseofrestarttherobot/robotspositionwillbechosenbythejudges.

Rules
General

Thereisgoingtobeabout6competitioninstances.Thereisgoingtobeascheduleshowing
thetimeeachteamhastoshowupinthearena.Iftheteamdoesnotshowupwilllosehis
turn.

Themomentwheneachteamwillcompetewillberandomlychosen,andhasatmaximum
oneminutetoshowupinthearena.Ifnot,itwilllosetheopportunity.
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Aboutrestarting:Theclockwillnotbestoppedandtheteamwillbepenalizedwith10
pointsduetorestarting.Theteamhas2minutestorestoretherobot(s)tocompete.Itis
allowedtocalibrateorsmallchanges(hardwareorsoftware).Thereisnolimitofrestarts.

Penalties

Aboutpenalties:Theclockwillnotbestopped,somepenaltieswouldnotneedtorestartbut
otherswillneed.Theenvironmentwillnotberesetandthescorewillnotberestored.The
robotwillreceiveanegativescore(penalty)foranytaskfailure(i.e.moveacow,leavea
terrineinthegrass,damageaglove).

Aboutpenaltiesandrestarting:

Therobotcannothavemorethantwoterrinesatthesametime.Ifittakesmorethan
twoterrinesithastorestart.
Incaseofmorethanonerobot,theycancommunicatewitheachother.
Thetotaltimetocompletethetaskisfifteen(15)minutes.
Eachteamcanrestartunlimitedtimes.Therestartpositionwillbechosenbythe
judges.Theteamhavetwo(2)minutestosetuptherobots.
Iftherobotcontinuouslytouchesacowlegorbodyformorethan6seconds,the
teammustrestart.
Iftherobotdamagesaglove,theteammustrestart.

Arenainitialconfiguration

Thearenacouldhave2o3cows.Thiswillbeselectedbyadraw.
Thepositionofeachcowwillalsobetheresultofadraw.
Therewillbetwelve(12)terrinesintheemptyterrineszone.Theemptyterrineswill
beuniformlydistributed.
Eachcompetitorcouldsethis/herrobot/robotsinanypositionofthefieldonlythefirst
time.
Themilktankpositionwillbechosenrandomlybythejudges.

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Figure12Scenarioinitialconfiguration

Scores

Pickemptyterrine+2
Crossfromthecorralzonetotheloadzonewithaterrinewithmilk+6(foreach
terrine)
Foreach40mlstoredinthemilktank+10
Foreachterrineonthefloororoutsidethefield2
Ifyourrobotrestartandhasaterrinawithmilkthenitwillwin1pointforeach4ml.

Announcementsandrounds

Anannouncementwithanhourofantecedencewillbegivenforstartingtestsandpresent
thedayschedule.

Allrobotswillcompeteineachround:
Allregisteredteamsmayparticipate
Judgeswillgeneraterandompositioningforthecows,terrinesandmilktank.
Thefirst,secondandthirdplacesoftheIEEELARCOpencategorywillbeawarded.
Toobtainthefirst,secondandthirdpositionthejudgeswillsumthepointofallthe
runswithouttheworseofthem.

Registration

InordertoparticipatetheIEEEOpencompetition,ateamofupto6peoplefromany
institutionmustbemade.Theteammembersmustbestudentsorformerstudentsthathave
obtainedtheirdegreeuptotwoyearsago.Theteamsmustberegisteredinthewebsite.The
registeredteamlistwillbeannouncedintheLARCwebsite.Itisrequiredduringregistration
topresentatechnicalreportusingtheIEEEtemplate.Thisreportmustdescribethemain
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robotsconcepts,constructionandprogramming.Afterthecompetition,thewinnerswill
brieflypresenttheirrobotstotheotherteams.Thereportmustbesentthroughtheevent
website.Failureinpresentingthisdocumentwillpreventtheparticipationoftheteaminthe
competition,asitisimportanttotheteaching,development,andknowledgetransferring
betweencontestants.AllteamsparticipatingtheIEEEOpencompetitionwillreceivea
participationcertificate.Inaddition,theteamsclassifiedinthefirstthreeplaceswillreceivea
winnercertificate.

Honorrules

FairPlayandcooperativebehaviorisexpectedfromallteamsduringtheentirecompetition,
in
particular:
whileevaluatingotherteams,
whilerefereeing,and
whenhavingtointeractwithotherteamsrobots.

Thisalsoincludes:
nottryingtocheat(e.g.pretendingautonomousbehaviorwherethereisnone),
nottryingtoexploittherules(e.g.nottryingtosolvethetaskbuttryingtoscore),and
nottryingtomakeotherrobotsfailonpurpose.

Basedonfaircompetition,LARCcompetitionencouragesfriendshipsandtheexchangeof
ideas,showcasesaccomplishments,advancesrobotics,andseedsinterestinfuture
generationsofrobotbuilders.

Therulesaredesignedtosupportthoseprinciples.But,awrittendocumentisunableto
coverallthecircumstancesandconditionsofanevent.Therefereeandcontestorganizers
havecompletediscretiontointerpretandaltertheserules,atanytime,tomeettheintended
spiritofthegames.

Wheneverreasonablypossible,refereesshouldprovidehelpfulexplanationsand
opportunitiesforcorrectiontoallowevennovicecontestantseverychancetoparticipateand
haveanenjoyableexperience.Whendisagreementsarise,participantsandspectators
shouldbeflexibleandremainrespectful.

Thejury

Thejurywillbecomposedofexpertsinrobotics.Oneofthemcouldbeacompetition
organizer,andtheremainingtwoguests.Thenamesofthejudgeswillbeannouncedbefore
thecompetition.

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Onextraordinarysituationsduringcompetition

Anyextraordinarysituationregardingrulesorthescorewillbeconsideredbythejudgesand
theorganizersoftheOpencategoryandtheywillissueaverdictwithhonestyand
impartiality.

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