Robot Game Technical Judging

MISSION PLANNING: Phase One: North side, refrigerated trailer and both rats brought back to base. Phase Two: East side, transport groceries to table; turn the cooking timer, turn the thermometer, empty purple and red dispensers, but not collecting the bacteria, while picking up the ice-cream and pizza. Phase Three and beyond *Under Construction*

ROBOT & ATTACHMENTS: Base robot: Rather blockish. Double wheels for stability, prevent accidental drifting. Free rolling back wheels for better handling, so the robot doesn t drag itself. A pair of side rollers helps align the robot. The third motor stands upright for easy swapping of attachments and is an advantageous spot to complete the missions. Right up front are two color sensors which we use as light sensors because the color sensor is more sensitive. Attachment One: Its nickname is Tiny. Obviously, it isn t, and it s quite the heavyweight champion too. Being in charge of pest control, it uses both its arms to hook the pair of rodents away. Wedged between our two color sensors , is an ingenious little piece of Lego engineering by our robot builder, Jet Herng. We call it the One-Way Hook . It lets something pass through one way, but hooks on to it when moved the other way. Perfect for transporting the refrigerated trailer back to base. Attachment Two: Up in front is something like a bull bar-style bumper, and a short arm which we use to turn the cooking timer. These help to align the robot too on the way to turn the thermometer. Our active attachment, a multi-purpose hook, is in charge of that, as well as hooking up the pizza and ice-cream. And right on top is a dispenser for the groceries, which the back end of our multi-purpose hook will nudge to make them fall onto the table. At the end of the dispenser is a flexible gate which will help slow down the groceries as they fall so they don t bounce off the table instead.

SCRIPT
Hafiz : Good morning, dear judges. This here is Goh Liang, he s the Game Planner. Then there s You Jun, who is the Head Programmer. And right over there is Jet Herng, the Robot Builder. The three of them make up the FUN part in our FUN ACES team. : Now let me introduce to you the base robot we made to accomplish this Mission Impossible . As you can see, it s rather blockish. This is by design, so that the robot is as compact and simple as possible. We put on double wheels for stability and to prevent accidental drifting. The free rolling back wheels are there for better handling, so that the robot doesn t drag itself too much. A pair of side rollers helps to align the robot to the border walls. The third motor stands upright for easy swapping of attachments and is at an advantageous spot to complete the missions. Right up front are two color sensors which we use as light sensors because the color sensor is more versatile and sensitive. : Here is our first attachment. Its nickname is Tiny. Obviously, it isn t, and it s quite the heavyweight champion too. Being in charge of pest control, it uses both its arms to hook the pair of rodents away. Wedged between our two color sensors , is an ingenious little piece of Lego engineering by our robot builder. We call it the One-Way Hook . It lets something pass through one way, but hooks on to it when moved the other way. At the back is a counterweight made to look like a storage compartment, so the robot looks more like a pickup truck. : Needless to say, it is the north side of the map we re interested in for phase one of our plan. Our robot moves in a curve towards the northernmost horizontal line, and then when the color sensor senses black, the robot turns to become parallel with the said black line. It moves further forward to the intersection of the two black lines, then reverse-turns to face the refrigerated trailer. Tiny lowers down, then the robot advances, activating the device that lets the rat slide down to the awaiting triple hook below, while inserting and arm into the loop of the other team s rat, and hooking onto the refrigerated trailer at the same time. After doing this, the robot reverses and rises Tiny up a bit, snatching away the other team s rat, then reverses some more to let Tiny get up and out of the way. What comes next is best described as a mad dash back to base with all three items. : And that s the end of phase one! Tiny comes off pretty easily with the quick release pins. The counterweight and one-way hook snaps off almost as easily. Four quick hands make short work of that, as well as assembling attachment number two.

Hafiz

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Adam : Attachment two puts something like a bull bar-style bumper and a short arm which we use to turn the cooking timer, on to the leading edge. These also help to align the robot on the way to turn the thermometer. Our active attachment, a multi-purpose hook, takes care of that, as well as hooking up the pizza and ice-cream. And right on top is a dispenser for the groceries, which the back end of our multi-purpose hook will nudge to make them fall onto the table. At the end of the dispenser is a flexible gate which will help slow down the groceries as they fall so they don t bounce off the table instead. And we have a different counterweight this time around. Just a simple weighted Lego block behind is sufficient to prevent drifting.

CJH:

The reason why we re focusing on the east side of the map for our second phase is because based on our planning and calculations, this side has the most number of points up for grabs. Our robot takes off in a curve, and then stops in between the two horizontal lines. It makes a turn and goes straight toward the sink. But wait! It s transporting groceries, not bacteria. It realizes this, backs up, and follows the line to the table. Our multi-purpose hook activates the dispenser, and there goes the groceries! On towards the timer! Some nimble maneuvering later, and the robot emerges, with the timer hand in the red. Moving further forward, the robot positions itself around the thermometer, then the hook moves up, the robot rotates, and down goes the hook, making the thermometer show low temperature.

*To be continued*

Technical Judging Q&A

1. How long did you take to complete this Mission Impossible ? About 3 months or so. The programming took us 2 months to complete, while the building of the robot, took quite a while, 1 months, because we were trying to make the most efficient robot we could make. 2. Did you all quarrel with each other when you were working on the robot game? Yes, we did have a few misunderstandings on how to best complete the missions. But, after consulting our coach, we managed to resolve them. 3. How often did you all meet to practice the Robot Game? About 3 times a week, around 3-4 hours each time, depending on when we are free. During the holidays some of us were busy, going on vacation, for example. And we received the map quite close to the competition day, therefore the rather rushed schedule. 4. Did ACES come and help you? Yes, they did. They helped us reset the map and fully supported us when we practiced. 5. Any problems you faced during the building of the robot? Our biggest problem is the drifting of the robot. We solved it by putting on counterweights to balance the robot, for example the two dummy touch sensors behind. 6. Why did you choose the color sensor instead of the light sensor? Because the color sensor is a new product, so we have faith that it is better and more sensitive than the light sensor.