Robot Building Lab and Competition 2001

Competition rules and regulations

BGU Computer Science Department


Robotic Peace-keeping Border Police Force

The unfolding story

After significant civil unrest, two fledgling nations Abozo and Baloney, vie for improved public peace, in the year 2284. As in any other society, some of the population are law-abiding citizens, while others are among the criminal element. Police business is a nasty job, and since way back in the 2250's robotic peace-keepers of various types have been used.

The police officer's task is difficult - not only must the criminals be placed in jail, but one must be certain of not mishandling honest citizens! Not only is this likely to cause unrest, but the UN human rights committee may decide to impose sanctions... Alternately, one can always deport the criminal elements of the society (if the jails are overcrowded), and make them the neighboring country's problem... Numerous good people have not yet decided which citizenship to adopt, it would be good to convince them to live in your own state!

The actual setting

Before deploying the robotics police force, extensive testing on a minituarized setting was adopted. In addition to being able to handle the situation in their own country, one must be aware of the (sometimes opposing) intents of the police forces of the neighboring nations. Thus, robots will compete against each other, one robot simulating the police force of each of the states. Developement teams that win the competitions will naturally be leading candidates in manufacturing the actual full-scale robots, a multi-billion UN-credit contract.

In order to simplify initial operations, we assume that criminals have distinguishing marks. However, it is the developement team's responsiblity to develop detectors that can tell the difference. In our competition, criminals will be grey coloured blocks, and honest people will be white blocks.

The table

The testing field is a large table of about 120 by 240 cm. The jails and border region, are distinuished by different coloured surface - table is white, border and other marks black, and jails something intermediate.

The layout of the contest table is shown in Figure 1. All measurements in the figure are not guaranteed to be accurate, and the only official measurements are those of the actual tables. The table is sectioned into Abozo, the no-man's land border region at the center, and Baloney. The robots begin at some random position in the starting area - inside the jail in the country represented by the robot. The table also has a number of black lines on the surface to help the robots navigate. Each starting area includes a "bar code" - two thin lines in one, one thick line in the other. Lights are installes at each end of the field behing the starting areas.

The blocks

At the start of every round, each country has 3 criminals and 3 honest citizens, represented by blocks. In each country, there are 6 places where the blocks are located. The two locations above and below the jail will always have criminals. The row of four blocks will have a random permutation of the honest citizens and the remaining criminal. There are 4 honest citizens in the no-man's land.

Each block is approximately a cube, about 5 cm on a side. Honext citizens are colored white, and criminals are coloured grey.

Competition rules

There will be two types of competition:

Both competitions types will have matches lasting 2 minutes each. Scores will be computed as below. Since the number of teams will not be large, the active opponent competition will be a league - each team will hold a match against each of the other teams.

Definitions

Each robot will be assigned to either Abozo or Baloney. A block is either in possession, a free citizen, in jail, or abroad.

In possession: any block that moves freely with the robot as the robot is moved in both dimensions of the playing surface is said to be possessed by that robot.

Free citizens: any block that's not possessed by a robot, is not in jail, and either touching your country or vertically supported by another block that is a free citizen is said to be a free citizen. If a block is vertically supported by more than one block, then it is a free citizen if at least one of the support blocks is considered a free citizen.

In jail: any block where either the contact area between the block and the table is completely within the starting area, or is vertically supported by a block that is in jail is said to be in jail. If a block is vertically supported by more than one block, then it is in jail only if all of the support blocks are in jail.

Abroad: any block that is not possessed, not a free citizen, and not in jail is said to be abroad.

Scoring

The score that each robot receives is determined by the final state of the contest table after the match has been played. The calculation is based on the following table:

Each block Free citizen In your possession In your jail Abroad
Honest citizen +1 -1 -3 0
Criminal -1 +1 +3 0

In other words, each block has some associated value. In your country, criminals have a detrimental value, while honest citizens are beneficial to your score. Possessing a block reverses its value, so a criminal in possession helps your score. Putting a block in jail reverses the value and multiplies it by a factor of three, so a criminal in jail earns many points, while innocent citicens in jail will greatly harm your score.

Finally, to encourage your robot to go to the other side of the table (as if putting honest citizens in your opponent's jail is not enough of an incentive), there is the Jailbreak Rule.

Jailbreak: at the end of the match, if all the points of contact that your robot had with the table at the beginning of the match are completely within your opponent's jail, then any blocks in your opponents jail are considered free citizens in your opponent's country.

Examples

Credits

This year's theme is a simplified version of MIT's RBL 6.270 "Bots in Blue" 2000 competition.


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