Path to Robo Rally
A. RoboRally game a future for line following contest
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Start line following
Make line following rule and board tougher
Move to mazes real and virtual
Grid competition (Waypoints & line following)
Laser tag
Board with RFID events
Put it all together and you get RoboRally for robots
RoboRally competition idea
The Premise
• A totally robot run factor on a far of planet,
life for them was getting a bit boring.
A day with Sharcbot in RoboRally
It was a hard day on the planets Widget manufacturing factory computer
RSL973, or “Sharcbot” for short, was a bit behind on his widget quota
and the other computers had taunted him for it. He had hoped to get
back at them in a RoboRally™ game, but things weren’t going well for
him in that either. Just this last turn, Sharcbot’s racing robot had been
severely damaged and one of its program registers was stuck. Sharcbot
quickly realized there was no way he could program his robot to reach
the repair site.
But wait—what was this? From deep in the back of Sharcbot’s “mind,” his
strategic subroutines suggested an alternative ploy: Sharcbot had a slim
chance of reaching the repair site this turn if he could get one of his
opponents to push him.
In a race, robots usually push each other as an offensive maneuver; a robot
knocked off course might accidentally fall into a pit. By putting his robot
in position to benefit from a push just might keep Sharcbot in the race
and earn him the respect of his peer control computers. Sharcbot
downloaded the instructions into his racing robot.
He was back in the race!
Starts with Line following
Make line following harder
MAZES and walls & ramps
Go to waypoints on a grid
Laser tag
A Laser Maze?
Laser tag, can
your bot out
Strategies a
Human RC
controlled
Bot or the AI on
the Bot how
about two at
the same time
RoboRally Boards with RFID action
The conveyor belts can be
line following with colors to
indicate the speed
Pit can be physical
Walls can be real
Cliffs can be real
Laser walls can be real or
RFID
Repair station can be an
RFID
Oil slicks can be RFID
Water can be a line & RFID
Put it all together you get these guys
Playing RoboRally for real
Rules of Robo Rally
• No cards for movement –> real-time autonomous
robots
• Have as many real objects obstacles as possible
• For objects that can’t be real simulate via color
code, RFID, other
• All robots must qualify by demonstrating proper
response to and virtual objects
• Laser need to be low power not harmful to
human observers, IR maybe the best choices