2015-2016 RARC Competition 3 - Middle School Division ...€¦ · anacondas, giant anteaters, electric eels, pink river dolphins, poison dart frogs, toucans, and vampire bats. Like

2015-2016 RARC Competition 3 - Middle School Division Guidelines - Page 1

The Wonders of the World

Congratulations on completing your first two adventures and advancing on to the final leg of your journey. Once again, your team will crisscross five oceans and seven continents as you explore the Wonders of the World, learn about them and the communities that surround them, and, in some cases, help preserve them for future generations to experience. Your final adventure will allow you to see new wonders and revisit wonders from previous adventures.

❖ The Amazon rainforest is believed to be 55 million years old. It belongs to nine nations in South America and represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests. The Amazon has the largest collection of living plants and animals. Some of its inhabitants include the following: anacondas, giant anteaters, electric eels, pink river dolphins, poison dart frogs, toucans, and vampire bats. Like other plants around the world, plants found within the rainforest have medicinal qualities. For example, of the plants known to have anti-cancer properties, 70% are found in the rainforest. Amazon natives use rainforest plants regularly, but 90% of the ones they use have not been studied by modern science. Your team’s task is to deliver samples of plant life from the Amazon to Denali, where they will be researched alongside plants native to that region.

❖ As you may remember from Competition 1, Victoria Falls in southern Africa is the largest waterfall in the world and was originally known as Mosi-oa-Tunya or the smoke that thunders. It became known as Victoria Falls in 1855 when Dr. David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary and explorer, renamed the waterfall in honor of Queen Victoria. Dr. Livingstone, who spent his last years in remote parts of Africa, is thought to have written several letters in last few years of his life but most never reached their destinations. Some of the letters have been located, and the Zimbabwe government wants them brought to Victoria Falls.

Adventure Awaits!


Rules and Regulations Competition General Rules

❏ There will only be two rounds of play on competition day. The first round will be the robotics challenge detailed in these guidelines. The second round will be a mystery challenge, which will be revealed at the competition. The scores from both rounds will be added together along with the score for the pre-competition task for one overall score.

❏ Teams will have time between rounds to go to the pit area. ❏ Trophies will be awarded to the top three teams in each division (elementary, middle, and high school). ❏ Only student team members are allowed in robotics challenge areas. Team members must ensure that they do not block the judge's’ view. ❏ Robots must be presented for a compliance check at the challenge area entrance before going to the competition mats. ❏ In the event that the robot breaks down during the challenge, the team will not be given any extra time to fix the robot. ❏ The role of an adult is that of a facilitator and thus all work prior to and at the competitions should be the work of students and not adults. Adults are not allowed to use team

computers or to touch robotics equipment during the competition. Teams who receive unauthorized aid will be disqualified. ❏ Teams are not allowed to program another team’s robot or to maliciously modify another team’s robot design or programming. Teams will be disqualified for these actions. ❏ The RARC committee makes every effort to provide a detailed set of rules for each competition. If you believe that a rule needs further clarification or that a detail might have been

left out, please submit your questions/concerns prior to the competition on the Competition Questions tab of the Coaches’ page. Clarifications/answers from the RARC committee will be posted on the same page. Please monitor the webpage for guidelines and questions updates.

❏ Coaches are responsible for verifying that all students have read and understand the rules of the competition. In the interest of time, teams are expected to know the rules when they go to the mat and to begin competing immediately.

❏ Judges and RARC Committee members understand the need for fairness across all challenges. No video or photographic record made by judges, team coaches/parents, spectators, or students of an event will be used for judging purposes.

❏ Except to go to and from the competition mats, technology (robots, laptops, external drives, etc.) is not allowed to leave or enter the team preparation area after

opening ceremonies.

Robot Design Rules

❏ Robots must not exceed the dimensions of 12” width by 12” length and a height of 12”. The robot, including all components such as cables, must fit these dimensions in its starting position in the home base, e.g., cannot turn it on its side to fit the dimensions.

❏ Robots may only utilize 1 NXT/EV3 intelligent brick, 3 NXT/EV3 motors, and 1 battery source as part of the robot. ❏ Teams may not use extra batteries, intelligent bricks or motors as weight. ❏ Robots must be autonomous and may not be remotely controlled. ❏ Teams may not use any materials (for example: oil, glue, and tape) that may adversely impact another team’s performance. String or rubber bands may be used as long as they do not

adversely affect another team’s performance. ❏ Things to keep in mind:

❏ Lighting conditions from mat to mat and location of mat can affect the performance of the robot. There might be bumps or uneven sections under the mat, and the mats may not lose their waviness even if rolled out ahead of time at the competition location.

❏ Mats will be taped using 2 inch blue painter’s tape around the perimeter of the mat to keep them in place. The outer portion of the tape will serve as the final border for the mat. Note that teams should avoid using the edge of the mat as a guide since the tape edge can affect the performance of the bot.


Robotics Challenge Rules Before Play

❏ Robots must start the round in home base and no part of the robot, game pieces, or alignment guides may extend past the base boundaries before the start of the round or when

resetting the field .

❏ All team members may approach the competition mat. The team captain should be the only team member touching the robot while other team members assist with building items. Team member should be sure they are not blocking the judges’ views, casting a shadow on the mat, or interfering with play in any way.

❏ Teams are allowed to bring the competition guidelines to the mat but judges will not give extra time to read and/or review them.

During Play ❏ Teams will have a maximum of 1 minute and 30 seconds from when the judge announces “GO” to complete as many of the challenge tasks as possible. Consider strategy! ❏ Round 1 continues until the 1 minute and 30 seconds have elapsed or the team captain calls “TIME.” ❏ The only time that a team member is allowed to touch the robot is when positioning or modifying (changing attachments) the robot in home base. ❏ If students touch the bot while it is outside of the home base, the bot must be immediately returned to home base and any pieces left as they are on the mat. ❏ If one drive wheel (wheels attached to a motor and used to drive robot) goes off the mat, students must stop the bot immediately and return the robot to home base. Any pieces

that were moved off the mat during this process must remain off the mat, i.e., the students can not move/retrieve them by hand. ❏ No items outside of home base on the mat may be touched by hand during the round. ❏ Students may interact with the game pieces and robot without penalty while the game pieces and robot are located in home base. ❏ Students are not allowed to modify the playing field while attempting to retrieve their robots while the round is still in motion. The judges may make the decision, at their discretion,

to not score any task that was modified by the students or the robot in the event that the bot modifies the field after going off the mat. ❏ The team captain may tell the judge “TIME” and the judge will stop the official time. Once time is called, the round may not be restarted. ❏ Robots must not exceed the dimensions of 12” width by 12” length and a height of 12” during play.

After Play ❏ In order to increase the accuracy of the scoring, only the end state of the field will be scored. The teams must be careful in their game strategies because an action of the robot might

alter the previous state of the field. ❏ Neither students nor judges are allowed to touch or otherwise modify the end state of the field until the scoring has been completed. ❏ Scoring will be conducted electronically, and team captains are encouraged to review their teams’ score sheet with the mat judge after the judge has completed marking the end state

of the field. Teams may use the Scoring Sheet on page 5 as a sample score sheet as in previous competitions. ❏ In the event that paper score sheets are used, team captains will need to bring their teams’ score sheets to the scorekeeper’s table for tabulation. ❏ No video or photographic record made by judges, team coaches/parents, spectators, or students of an event will be used for judging purposes.

❏ The pieces are considered to be “in,” “touching” or “on” the surface if at least part of the game piece is touching or is inside of the boundary of the required field. See graphic to the

right.


Scoring Sheet Team Name_________________________________________________ Mat A B C D E F G H Round 1

Retrieve clues from research station Objective: Gather the clues located in the four corners of the research station in Antarctica and bring them to home base to learn the correct ending location coordinates, which will be either Chichen Itza or the Taj Mahal.

❏ +5 points for each clue retrieved and brought back to home base

Rescue the explorer from Australia

Objective: Teams must retrieve an explorer, who has been detained, from a cage located in the white box in Australia. ❏ +30 points rescuing the explorer (Explorer must be in home base at the end of the round.) OR

❏ +60 points for rescuing the explorer without the cage ever crossing the home base boundary during the round (Explorer must be in home base at the end of the round.)

❏ +25 points for going undetected meaning the cage is touching the white box located in Australia at the end of the round

Deliver plant life to Denali

Objective: Teams will retrieve the plant life from the Amazon and process it to be delivered to Denali ❏ +10 points for retrieving the plant life located in the Amazon and delivering it to home base ❏ +10 points for processing the plant life (placing it inside a delivery cart of the team’s design, plant life may be reconfigured when placed in cart) ❏ +50 points for delivering the plant life inside of a cart to the white box located at Denali on the competition mat. The cart must be touching the white box.

The cart design is up to the team. No points will be given if the plant life is delivered to Denali outside of a cart or if the cart does not contain any plant life. Retrieve the lost letters and deliver them to the Livingstone Memorial at Victoria Falls Objective: Teams must retrieve retrieve the letters (8 - 2x2 LEGO bricks) located at two locations on the mat and transport the correct number (coded message must be decoded to obtain correct number) to Victoria Falls.

❏ +5 points for each letter that is collected and located in home base at the end of the round ❏ +100 points for delivering the correct number of letters as indicated by the information found in the coded message to the white box at Victoria Falls.

Ending position of the robot Objective: The ending location will be revealed in latitude and longitude within one of the clues at the research center.

❏ +0 points for not ending at the correct location ❏ +50 points for ending in the correct location with at least one drive wheel touching part of the white box

Touch Penalties

❏ -5 points for each time that the robot is touched outside of home base (There will be a maximum of 5 touch penalties.)

Bonus Objective: The robot performs all tasks successfully in less than the allotted time.

❏ +1 point per every second under the two minutes time limit IF all tasks are successfully completed to the maximum amount of points possible for that task and no penalties were assessed during the round.


Items Needed for Competition

Cage for Rescue the Explorer Task

Clues 4 - 1 inch PVC Schedule 40 Coupler. “Official” clue holders will be bought at the Home Depot SKU#188-085. A label clue, made using a Dymo LetraTag label maker, will be located on the inside portion of the coupler. The ending location clue will contain the latitude and longitude of the location.

Plant Life


Letters 2x2 LEGO bricks (8)

Explorer Set of legs (x1) Upper-body (x1) Head (x1)


Middle School Field Layout

❏ The competition mat can be purchased through StickersBanners.com. More information on ordering mats can be found on the RARC website at

http://nicerc.org/product-category/rarc/. ❏ Note: The letters, words, arrows do not appear in the actual mat and are only being used to help describe the challenge.


http://www.nicerc.org/pages/competitionmats/

http://nicerc.org/product-category/rarc/

Round 1

Retrieve clues from research station Objective: This task requires teams to gather 4 PVC couplers located in the multi-colored rectangle in Antarctica. One coupler will be located within each of the yellow and red rectangles. One of the four couplers will have the coordinates for the ending location of the robot.

❏ +5 points for each clue retrieved and brought back to home base

Rescue the explorer from Australia

Objective: This task requires teams to retrieve the explorer, who has been detained, from inside a cage located in Australia. ❏ +30 points rescuing the explorer (explorer must be in home base at the end of the round.) OR

❏ +60 points for rescuing the explorer without the cage ever crossing the home base boundary during the round (Explorer must be in home base at the end of the round.)

❏ +25 points for going undetected (Cage is touching the white box located in Australia at the end of the round.) Deliver plant life to Denali

Objective: Teams will retrieve the plant life from the Amazon and place it inside of a cart that the teams bring to the competition. The cart along with the plant life must be taken to the white box in Alaska.

❏ +10 points for retrieving the plant life located in the Amazon and delivering it to home base ❏ +10 points for processing the plant life (placing it inside a delivery cart of the team’s design,plant life may be reconfigured when placed in cart) ❏ +50 points for delivering the plant life inside of a cart to the white box located at Denali on the competition mat. The cart must be touching the white box.

The cart design is up to the team. No points will be given if the plant life is delivered outside of a cart or if the cart does not contain any plant life. Retrieve the lost letters and deliver them to the Livingstone Memorial at Victoria Falls Objective: Teams must retrieve retrieve the letters (8 - 2x2 LEGO bricks) located at two locations in the mat and transport the correct number (coded message must be decoded to obtain correct number) to the white box at Victoria Falls.

❏ +5 points for each letter that is collected and located in home base at the end of the round ❏ +100 for delivering the correct number of letters as indicated by the information found in the coded message to the white box located at Victoria Falls

Ending position of the robot Objective: The ending location coordinates will be revealed in latitude and longitude within one of the clues at the research center.

❏ +0 points for not ending in the correct location ❏ +50 points for ending in the correct location - at least one drive wheel must be touching the white box at the correct location.

Touch Penalties

❏ -5 points for each time that the robot is touched outside of home base (There will be a maximum of 5 touch penalties.) Bonus Objective: The robot performs all tasks successfully in less than the allotted time.

❏ +1 point per every second under the two minutes time limit IF all tasks are successfully completed to the maximum amount of points possible for that task and no penalties were assessed during the round


Round 2 Mystery Challenge Objective: To showcase your robotic skills! Teams will be given a mystery challenge on the day of competition after round 1. It will then be up to you and your team to program your bot to successfully complete the mystery challenge. The challenge will utilize skills that you have already used or could have used to successfully complete this year's RARC competitions. Examples of skill are the following:

❏ Forward/backward movement ❏ Use of ultrasonic and/or touch sensor ❏ Turning ❏ Stopping and starting ❏ Use of loops and switches ❏ Gears ❏ Reading a map ❏ Collecting objects ❏ Builds

The above list is NOT an inclusive list of skills. Teams will need to have the ability to complete the mystery challenge WITHOUT the aid of an adult. Coaches

will not be allowed to interact with any students face-to-face or via electronic communication during the mystery challenge. Additionally, each team is responsible for its own programming, and teams may not share programs. Teams will be given time to program their bots and participate in ONE round. Pre-Competition

Challenge design to be submitted by April 15 to [email protected] as an attached Word document only. The organization/school’s

name, coach’s name and contact info, and team name and number must be at the top of the submission (Example: Jones Middle School/Mrs. Smith,

coach/ [email protected]/Jones Middle Team 4). All tasks must be completed for +25 points. No points will be given for any challenge design

submitted after this date or for any challenge design without the correct school/team information, including team number.

Objective: To design a robotic challenge using the following criteria: ❏ NO less than four tasks ❏ One task/challenge MUST require gears ❏ One task/challenge MUST use an ultrasonic sensor ❏ One task/challenge MUST use three motors ❏ Clear directions ❏ All materials are clearly indicated as well as directions for any required builds ❏ Task/challenge objectives are clearly stated ❏ All task must flow together- have a common theme ❏ Presentation is in an easy to read format ❏ Task must be original and not not previously used for a RARC competition.


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:coach/[email protected]

mailto:coach/[email protected]

http://mail.com/Jones

http://mail.com/Jones

Coded Messages

Before cell phones, traveling explorers could communicate while on land, boats, and planes using telegraphs. The most common method of communication with a telegraph is through the use of Morse code, which was invented by Samuel Morse in the 1830s. Morse code is a way to transmit messages letter-by-letter using a combinations of dits and dahs, represented by dots and dashes.

● A dit is a short signal or sound usually measured by counting to one and is represented by a dot.

● A dah is a long signal and is measured by counting to three. Dahs are usually represented by dashes. The table on the next page shows every letter of the alphabet, numbers 0 to 9, and even some punctuation marks that can be transmitted using different combinations of dits and dahs. In order to reduce confusion when transmitting Morse code messages, pauses were set up between letters and words. Between each letter, count to three; and between each word, count to seven.

Morse code seems difficult to learn at first, but experienced operators can reduce the time between letters and words and can transmit and receive messages at 20–30 words per minute.


Morse code representations of letters, punctuation, and numbers:

Teacher Resources for Additional Learning To hear the Morse code per letter, number, or punctuation mark, you can visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code. http://www.softschools.com/facts/wonders_of_the_world/amazon_rainforest_facts/98/


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code

http://www.softschools.com/facts/wonders_of_the_world/amazon_rainforest_facts/98/

Coded Message

The coded message will be released at a later time


Overall Competition Scoring Scores:

Robotics performance component 600 possible points for Round 1(not including the bonus), Round 2, and pre-competition task

Tie: Time will be used as the deciding factor. In the event that multiple top teams (1st – 3rd) have the same scores and time, a tiebreaker robotics performance round will be conducted between those teams that have the same scores in order to appropriately place each team.

Tips for Success!

❏ Teams should read all of the rules prior to starting preparation for the competition. ❏ Students can use the robot educator part of the software to see walkthroughs about different aspects of programming the robots as well as building tips. ❏ Teams should assign jobs to the students, and students should be aware of their respective roles when they go to the mat. ❏ Teams should not wait until the last minute to go to the mat; this increases the chance of teams underperforming due to stress. ❏ Teams should break the board in zones and look at which tasks are located in each zone and the difficulty of each task. ❏ Keep in mind that just because tasks are located in the same area of the field does not mean that teams should attempt to do them together; it might be

better to do another task to get more points or easier points prior to attempting a task. ❏ Look at the obstacles on the field. Think about how they can affect the movement/path of your robot. ❏ A bot that looks cool may not perform as well as a robot that does not have a great appearance. ❏ Don’t think about using the most amount of space in the home base but rather whether the robot design/structure will actually help you perform the tasks.

Some teams get carried away with the size, and their bots become impractical. ❏ Teams should not use the edge of the mat since the tape used to secure the mat to the floor can affect how the robot and game pieces behave. ❏ Speed and accuracy are inverse of each other, i.e., the faster you do something the more likely you are to mess it up. It is a good idea to start slowly and then

increase speed as you practice your missions. This will let you find a balance between speed and accuracy. ❏ Practice, practice, practice the tasks until you have the right strategy!


Thank you to the RARC partners:

… and all of the RARC committee members 2015-2016 RARC Competition 3 - Middle School Division Guidelines - Page 15

2015-2016 RARC Competition 3 - Middle School Division ...€¦ · anacondas, giant anteaters, electric eels, pink river dolphins, poison dart frogs, toucans, and vampire bats. Like

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