ECE 3400, Fall 2018 - Final Competition

The final schedule is available here.

Competition Overview

The competition will have a total of three rounds:

• Round 1a: Team 1-8
• Round 1b: Team 9-16
• Round 1c: Team 17-24

• Round 1d: Team 24-28

• Round 2a: Team 1-8
• Round 2b: Team 9-16
• Round 2c: Team 17-24
• Round 2d: Team 24-28

The four teams with the highest cummulative score (marked by an apostrophy) go on to round 3:

• Round 3: Team 1-4’

The last four teams will be ranked according to their performance in the final round.

Scoring

(Note that the maze and competition layout has changed since 2017.)

We will be running 2 large mazes simultaneously with four robots in each. The robots will be scored for the amount of maze they manage to map correctly in 5 min. They will receive bonus points for detecting treasures, and negative points for crashing into other robots. If someone drives into your robot, you can help it by physically getting it back on track.

The layout of the maze will not be revealed before the competition and they will be changed between rounds. Teams are not allowed to change their algorithms between rounds. You will have 2min to place your robot; 5 min to run it (as many times as you want, in case it fails); and 5min to clear off the robot and receive your score. Start and end times will be strictly enforced.

The following grading scheme is applied at every round for every robot that is competing.

Start

You will place your robot in one corner and leave the field, when the start tone is played all robots should start. If a robot does not start, the TAs will allow you to run in and turn it on. Note that the start tone will be played on two Logitech computer speakers at full volume, located just outside the corner walls where your robot is starting.

Coverage

The full mazes will be 9 x 9 squares. The robot that maps the most of the maze correctly (wrt to walls and gaps) in a given round will receive 15 points. All other robots will receive scaled values thereof.

Treasures

• For every treasure which is located correctly: 1 point
• For every treasure with the correctly identified color: 1 point
• For every treasure with the correctly identified shape: 1 point
• For every discovery of a treasure that is not there: -1 point
• For mislabeled shape: -1 point (worst case is -1 point per treasure)
• For mislabeled color: -1 point (worst case is -1 point per treasure)
• The minimum score per round is 0 points; the maximum is 20 points.

Penalties

If your robot crashes into another robot you will receive -5 points per event (with the lowest score per round being 0 points).

Finalists

All members of the teams that score first, second, and third runner up will be given an additional 5, 3, and 1 point respectively. The first place winners also receive class T-shirts!

Consolation Points

If your base station fails to receive updates from your robot, but the TA notices that it runs after all, you will receive 5 points for finishing the quarter of the maze in which your robot started, and 1-5 points for completing additional quarters.

How does this score affect the final grade?

Up to 25 points will be added to your semester score:

• The best performance of your robot in any round will count up to 20 points.
• The winning team will be given an extra 5 points.
• The second runner up will be given an extra 3 points.
• The third runner up will be given an extra 1 point.