Student Robotics Rules 2022

Game Rules

The objective of the game, called This Way Up, is to capture the most correctly-oriented cans.
Before a match begins, participating teams must:
- Present their robot in the staging area, adjacent to the arena, before the scheduled close of staging time. The staging area will be clearly marked on the day.
- Attach a robot flag. Robot flags will be provided by Student Robotics officials in the staging area.
- Place their robot in the starting area that they are assigned. The robot must be placed such that it is entirely within this starting area, with no parts overhanging its boundary. Its orientation does not matter.
- Vacate the arena 40 seconds before the scheduled start time. During the 40 second period prior to the start of the match there must be no interaction with the robot.
- Follow the directions of the match officials.
Teams that fail to comply with these rules–such as by arriving late–may forfeit the match, at the discretion of the judge.
The game is played between four robots.
Each match lasts for 150 seconds.
Robots will be started by, or at the direction of, match officials.
There are 28 cans in the arena at the start of each match.
Cans on the arena floor start upside-down. Cans on the raised platform start in the correct orientation.
Each can in a teams' scoring zone is worth:
- 0 game points if it is on its rolling edge,
- 1 game point if it is upside down,
- 3 game points if it is the correct way up.
A can is "in" a scoring zone if either:
- any part of it is in contact with the wall or floor in the zone,
- the can is in contact only with other cans which are in the zone.
There is a bonus point available for a robot fully leaving its scoring zone for the first time in a game.
Robots start inside their scoring zone.
At the end of the match the robot with the most points wins.
The arena is a square of the design specified in the specifications section.
A match may be terminated prematurely if all teams participating in that match state to the match officials that they are happy for the game to end.

Regulations

All robots must be safe.
- It must not be possible to directly or indirectly injure oneself on the robot. Exposed sharp edges and fast moving parts, for example, may be tested using a Frankfurter sausage to simulate a finger. Teams are encouraged to discuss any safety concerns about their robot on the Student Robotics Discord.
- The robot’s power switch must be on the outside top of the robot and easily accessible at all times – including throughout the game. This is for everyone’s safety, especially your robot’s
- The lithium-ion polymer batteries provided in the kit must be shielded from mechanical and thermal harm. This includes mechanical protection from accidental impact with other robots. Teams found to be in violation of this rule will have their batteries confiscated until they have demonstrably rectified the identified issues.
- Only the power board may be connected directly to the battery.
- Robots must follow the safety regulations.
The Judge’s decision is final.
Any assistance from Student Robotics volunteers is provided without guarantees.
Student Robotics reserves the right to examine teams’ robot software and hardware at any time.
Teams are expected to conduct themselves within the normal principles of good sporting conduct.
While accidental bumps and scrapes are inevitable, the sport is non-contact.
No remote control systems may be used.
Robots must pass an inspection by a Student Robotics Inspector before competing in a match. This inspector will check that the robot complies with the rules and regulations of this game, and is safe to compete. Robots that have not passed inspection will not be permitted to compete.
Robots must not intentionally damage anything – including cans, the raised platform, the arena or other robots. At the discretion of the judge, teams who deliberately engage in collisions or take insufficient precautions against collisions may be penalised, including disqualification from rounds and deduction of league points.
All kit provided by Student Robotics remains the property of Student Robotics.
At the beginning of each match, robots must fit within a cube with 500mm internal sides. During a match, the robot may not extend further than 1000mm along the axes parallel to the floor.
During a match robots may deploy supporting equipment into the arena, as long as that equipment is clearly designed to be of direct benefit to the robot. Such equipment must not deliberately impede other robots and reasonable care must be taken to ensure that it does not become merely an obstacle to other robots.
All wires connected to the robot's ground (0V line) must be black. Black wires must not be used for anything else. It is strongly recommended that all wiring is neat and easily removable, as this will reduce the time required to debug problems on robots (teams may be asked to tidy their wiring before a Student Robotics volunteer will approach any issues with their robot).
All electronics must be securely fixed to the robot, and should also be easily removable.
If teams wish to use batteries other than the lithium-ion polymer batteries provided, then they must seek approval from Student Robotics through the Student Robotics Discord first. Additionally, if teams wish to add systems powered by separate batteries then they must seek approval through the same channel first, with the exception of video cameras. In general, teams are encouraged to power everything off the Student Robotics supplied battery through the power board.
Robots may not include radio transmitters or receivers. In exceptional circumstances, teams may request an exemption from this rule.
Robots must not have any devices designed for the sole purpose of producing audible noise, with the exception of the piezoelectric buzzer on the power board.
Robots must have a spare USB slot to be used by the competition USB provided by Student Robotics, which is inserted during staging. This slot will be in addition to the slot used for user’s robot code, and must be easily accessible. Robots without a competition USB may not enter a match.
All robots must have mountings for the removable robot flags provided by Student Robotics, as described in the flag specification. A mounting must firmly hold a flag in an upright position. Flags must be mounted on the top of the robot.

Specifications

Markers

The arena is labelled with fiducial markers. Each marker pattern encodes a number. Each marker number is associated with a particular feature within the arena, and also has an associated size.

Item	Marker Numbers	Marker Size (mm)
Arena boundary	0 - 27	200

Two sets of marker codes will be used: one for development purposes, and one for the competition itself. The competition set is only to be used inside the Student Robotics arena at the Student Robotics competition. This is so that people carrying markers past the arena do not confuse robots. The competition codes are 100 above the development codes. When run in competition mode, the software provided by Student Robotics will subtract 100 from the detected marker codes, as well as ignore the development codes. Markers outside of the ranges used in the game will also be ignored.

The markers can be printed on a black-and-white printer. Marker designs can be downloaded from the documentation section of the Student Robotics website.

Twenty eight arena wall markers are positioned around the perimeter of the arena with the marker codes incrementing in a clockwise fashion. The corners are counted in a clockwise fashion, with corner 0 being the corner closest to arena marker 0.

Arena

The above figure represents, to scale, a birds eye view of the arena. The arena is 5.75m square.
The floor of the arena is covered with a closed-loop, short pile carpet.
The perimeter of the arena floor is delimited by the arena wall, which has a minimum height of 100mm.
Each wall of the arena features seven 200mm AprilTag markers.
Each robot will be assigned a corner at the start of every match to indicate its starting area. Corner starting areas are 1000 ±20mm square and will be marked by tape.
The green boxes denote the robot start locations. Robots may start facing any direction.
In the centre of the arena is a raised platform of height 180 ±20mm with a side length of 1200 ±100mm.
The sides of the raised platform will be solid.
Cans which start on the raised platform will be flush with the edge.
Along each edge of the arena is a can, which is touching the edge of the arena.
Student Robotics reserves the right to have match officials in the arena during games.

Scoring Zones

The four scoring zones form right-angled triangles, with the right angle described by the corner of the arena and the short sides of length 2500mm ±50mm.
Edges of scoring zones will be marked by 48mm coloured tape. The tape will be placed along the inside of the edge of the zone, including it in the zone for scoring purposes.

Robot flags

A "robot flag" is a removable identifier that will be attached to a robot throughout a match. It features identifying areas to allow spectators to easily associate a robot with its starting area. The markings in the identifying areas are intentionally not specified.
Flags are not counted when considering the starting size of the robot.
The identifying part of the robot flag must be visible when attached to the mount.
The mounting cylinder must be permanently affixed to the main chassis of a robot, and vertical when the robot is in its typical stopped position.

Cans

Cans are cylindrical metalic containers weighing 350g ±20g. (These cans are labelled 300g in supermarkets, we recommend an own-brand 300g carrots in water can)
Cans are 67mm ±3mm in diameter with a height of 100mm ±5mm.
Cans have a top and bottom rim, have ribbed sides and are without a ring-pull.
Cans will be arranged as shown in the arena specification.
Cans are electrically conductive and ferromagnetic.
The bottom end of the can is signified by a strip of non-conductive material with a height of 25mm ±2mm around the rolling edge.

Competition Structure

The competition is structured in two phases: the league and the knockout.
At the end of a game, league points will be awarded as follows. The team with the most game points will be awarded 8 points towards the competition league. The team with the second most will be awarded 6. The team with the third most will be awarded 4 points, and the team with the fewest game points will be awarded 2 points. Teams whose robot was not entered into the round, or who were disqualified from the round, will be awarded no points.
Tied robots will be awarded the average of the points that their combined positions would be awarded. Thus, three robots tied for first place would receive 6 points each (since this is (8 + 6 + 4) ÷ 3).
At the end of the leagues, positions in the leagues are used to seed a knockout. This will be used to determine the final 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd awards.
In the event of a tie in a knockout match, the team that ranked highest in the league will go through.

Awards

Main Competition Awards

Awarded to the teams that place highest in the knockout at the end of the competition. The teams in 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place receive awards.

Rookie Award

Awarded to the team, competing in Student Robotics for the first time, which places highest in the league.

Committee Award

Awarded to the team that displays the most extraordinary ingenuity in the design of their robot. It is not awarded for complexity of design, but rather elegance, simplicity, and good engineering.

Online Presence

Awarded to the team judged to have the best online presence. The hashtag for the competition is #srobo2022. Teams are reminded not to post private information about their members or others.

First Robot Movement

The first rookie team to demonstrate a moving robot to the community will be awarded an edible prize at the final competition.

The robot movement must be controlled by software running on the Student Robotics kit.
The robot must move 2 metres, pause for 2 seconds, turn 180° (±20°), return to its starting area (±0.5m), and come to a halt without interference.
This must be demonstrated by a video on the web (e.g. on YouTube, Instagram, etc.) and linking to this video in the #teams-on-the-web channel on the Student Robotics Discord channel.

Robot and Team Image

The team that presents their robot and themselves in what is judged to be the most outstanding way will receive an edible prize at the final competition.

This Way Up

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