Objectives

Purpose

The Purpose of this post is to outline the requirements set forth by the course for which we are building the robot. The objective of the blog as a whole is to document our process and to report our findings as the project progresses.

The Challenge

Description

Our robot begins the challenge in our home castle. Within 2 minutes, it must find the
ruling castle, remove the crown from the throne inside, and return to our home castle,
and place the crown on the home throne.
At the start of every round, three castles will be chosen at random and designated as
“Home Castle”, “Rival Castle”, and “Ruling Castle.”
Your Home Castle and the Rival Castle will both have their track wire turned on. The
track wire will be off in the other castles. The Ruling Castle will have a beacon lit under
its throne. There will be a dead bot randomly placed on the field to simulate the
tournament (though it will not be placed such that the task is impossible).
Once the crown is removed from the reigning throne, the beacon will be turned off.
Should it become apparent that a robot will not complete a round (for example, if it fails
to resolve a collision for more than 5 seconds, or if it becomes trapped in a moat), the
robot will be disqualified.

Explanation of Materials

Home/Rival/Ruling Castle

Each castle consists of a 30" by 30" space created with MDF and outlined by castle walls, which consist of 2 plates of MDF. The walls are 8" tall and 2" wide.  

The Beacon

Two Acryllic Plates housing a device which will emanate a 2kHz IR signal with a 50% duty

cycle.

The Moat 

An area surrounding the castle that is 6" thick and is outlined by 2" thick, black PVC Tape.

More Information 

The complete challenge is located here.