Final Rules 2012/4/13
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2012 RoboBoat FINAL RULES 2012/4/13 5th RoboBoat Competition - Final Rules Sponsored by the AUVSI Foundation and the US Office of Naval Research “The five card draw” 19-24 June 2012 Founders Inn and Spa, Virginia Beach, VA The goal of this competition is to provide an opportunity for students to experience the challenges of and develop skills in system engineering by accomplishing realistic missions with autonomous vehicles in the maritime environment and to foster ties between young engineers and the organizations developing Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) technologies. SCHEDULE*: Event Due Date Intent to Compete Form and Payment Due Friday 02 March 2012 Website online Friday 16 March 2012 Hotel reservation deadline Saturday 19 May 2012 Video presentation submitted Monday 28 May 2012 Journal Paper and Resume turned in Monday 28 May 2012 Team Check-in & Orientation Tuesday 19 June 2012 1000 hrs Safety Inspections and In-water Practice Time Tuesday 19 June 2012 1200 hrs In-water Practice Time Wednesday 20 June 2012 0800 hrs In-water Practice Time Thursday 21 June 2012 0800 hrs Static Judging and In-water Practice Time Friday 22 June 2012 0800 hrs Qualifying Runs Saturday 23 June 2012 0800 hrs Last chance and practice time Sunday 24 June 2012 0800 hrs Finals Sunday 24 June 2012 1300 hrs Awards Party (evening) Sunday 24 June 2012 1900hrs *subject to change. POINTS OF CONTACT: Rules / Technical Issues: Félix Pageau [email protected] +1 607 220 4636 Overall Event Planning Daryl Davidson, AUVSI Foundation [email protected] +1 703-845 9678 Logistics / Administrative Leslie Hinton, AUVSI [email protected] +1 703 845 9671 Sponsorship/Marketing Clay Battin, AUVSI Foundation [email protected] Media Wendy Siminski, AUVSI Foundation [email protected] +1 703 328 0741 Page 1/20 2012 RoboBoat FINAL RULES 2012/04/13 1 General Information 1.1 Background: The goal of this competition is to provide an opportunity for students to experience the challenges of and develop skills in system engineering by accomplishing realistic missions with autonomous vehicles in the maritime environment and to foster ties between young engineers and the organizations developing Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) technologies. The competition is comprised of two parts: design and performance. The design part is based on an innovative system concept, rigorous engineering, and the well-crafted construction of a functional vehicle to perform the mission. The performance part is an in-situ demonstration of the vehicle’s capabilities to execute specified mission tasks. 1.2 Teams: To field a competitive vehicle, a range of cross-disciplinary skills will be required. A team of people best accomplishes this synergy. Teams may be a combination of students, faculty, industrial partners, or government partners. Students may be high school, undergraduate and/or graduate students. Full-time students must compose at least 75 percent of each team. Full time students must be enrolled at their schools in full time status during winter and spring quarters/semesters immediately prior to the competition year. The student members of a team must make significant contributions to the development of the vehicle. One student member of the team must be designated as the "team leader". The team leader, and only the team leader, will speak for the team during the competition runs. Only the student component of each team is eligible for the cash awards. 1.3 Location and Facilities: The competition will be held at the Founder’s Inn and Spa’s pond from 19-24 June 2012. Team check-in and registration will be at the hotel on Tuesday 19 June 2012 beginning at 1000 hrs. The Founder’s Inn is a hotel in Virginia Beach, VA that has a large on-site pond. The pond has an average depth between 5-12 feet and features a water fountain (cannot be removed). Consider the water fountain as a natural obstacle and avoid it at all costs. See the competition pond on Google Maps. A tent (10 by 10 foot or equivalent space) will be provided at the location for each team to have a covered work area. Electricity and Internet access will be provided in each tent. It is expected that students be at these areas during the day and have posters, promotional material, and resumes available since the site will be open to the public. 1.4 Schedule: Teams will register on Tuesday morning 1000 hrs 19 June 2012 for the mandatory orientation meeting. Practice time will be on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday all day. Static judging (and more practice time) will take place on Friday. Qualifying runs will occur on Saturday and Sunday morning. Qualifying teams will compete in the Finals on Sunday afternoon. The Awards Party will take place Sunday evening, 24 June. The event will be held rain or shine. Times may vary due to schedule delays due to unsafe/bad weather. Page 2/20 2012 RoboBoat FINAL RULES 2012/04/13 2 General requirements R1. Autonomy: the vehicle must be fully autonomous and all decisions must be taken onboard the ASV. R2. Buoyancy: the vehicle must be positively buoyant and be buoyant for at least 30 minutes in the water. R3. Communication: the vehicle cannot send or receive any information while in autonomous mode*. R4. Deployable: the vehicle must have its own 3 or 4 points harness for crane deployment. R5. Energy source: the vehicle must use self-contained electrical energy source. Sailboats are permitted. R6. Kill Switch: the vehicle must have at least one 1.5in diameter red button located on the vehicle that, when actuated, must disconnect power from all motors and actuators. R7. e-Kill Switch: in addition to the physical kill-switch, the vehicle must have at least one remote kill switch that provides the same functionality. R8. Payload: the vehicle must have a place to mount a payload up to a 60-inch cube weighing up to 5lbs. R9. Payload location: the payload must have an unobstructed view of the sky and front of the vehicle. R10. Propulsion: any propulsion system is fine (thruster, paddle, etc), but moving parts must have a shroud. R11. Remote-controllable: the vehicle must be remote-controllable to be brought back to the dock. R12. Safety: all sharp, pointy, moving, sensitive, etc parts must be covered and clearly identified. R13. Size: the vehicle must fit within a six-foot long, by three-foot wide, by three-foot high “box”. R14. Surface: the vehicle must float or use ground effect of the water. Mostly submerged/flying is forbidden. R15. Towable: the vehicle must have designated tow points and a tow harness installed at all times. R16. Waterproof: the vehicle must be rain/splash resistant. The competition is held “rain or shine”! R17. Weight: the vehicle must be 140 lbs or less. * = With the exception of communications for reporting the ‘Hot Suit’ target 3 Notable changes from 2011 rules • All teams will be required to submit a link to an online (YouTube or such) presentation video to introduce their team and vehicle. • Orientation meeting will be held on the morning of June 19th and testing will start around noon. Plan on getting to the hotel on June 18th (or very early on June 19th for local teams) • All vehicle deployments for competition runs will be done via a crane. Each team is required to provide a 3 or 4 points harness to lift their vehicle (4 points harness are strongly preferred). • Each team will be given two qualification time slots. One slot will be on course A, one on course B. • A “open test area” zone will be setup with a partial course for testing (first-come, first served style) • All vehicle deployments for the “open test area” will be done via a ramp. Each team is required to provide a trailer for use on this ramp. • All teams are expected to provide a digital copy of the video footage analyzed by their vehicle. For 2012, the digital copy can be handed over manually (flash drive, upload to a FTP site, etc). We expect that in 2013 we will require teams to broadcast the ‘live’ video footage analyzed by their vehicle over a wireless network. • Telescopic robotic arms, cranes or anything that is an extension of a vehicle still in the water and is not self-propelled using the landing zone ‘ground’ surface effect will not be accepted for amphibious station. Page 3/20 2012 RoboBoat FINAL RULES 2012/04/13 4 Mission description The 2012 mission consists of three (3) sets of tasks. The first set includes four mandatory tasks that have to be successfully completed in sequential order in order to proceed to the second set of tasks. The first set of tasks includes demonstrating your strength (via a propulsion test), demonstrate ability to navigate by passing the starting gate, demonstrate speed by reaching as quickly as possible and pass through the gate and go through the navigation channel. Then, if you successfully completed the mandatory tasks, you may proceed to the challenge stations. All challenge stations are optional and can be attempted in any order. You can retry any challenge station as many times as you want (or until your time runs out). The second set of tasks is the challenge stations, which are themed after casino games and concepts. The “Poker Chip” station is an amphibious or automated vehicle deployment challenge where the end goal is for the vehicle to retrieve a token from a dock. The “Jackpot” station is a challenge where the vehicle needs to locate and actuate a red mushroom button. The “Cheater’s Hand” station is a challenge to find a land based target and shoot water in a specific area.