UOWD Robotics Competition Rules 2017
A. Competition categories
The UOWD Robotics Competition 2017 has the following competitions:
 Soccer (Mini-Volleyball): High schools only
 Storage Challenge: High schools only
 Open Competition for Primary, Middle, and High school students in addition to
University students.
A team may only participate in one game at a time. If a team participates in more than one game
simultaneously, it is the sole responsibility of the team to follow the schedule of both games and
be present on time.
B. Team Definition
1. A team consists of one (1) coach and up to (3) team members (students).
2. Coaches may offer students advice and guidance prior to the competition, however during
the actual competition, all work and preparation must be performed only by the student
members of the team without any contact or communication with the coaches.
C. General Rules
1. Teams are expected to prepare and bring all the necessary equipment, software and portable
computers they need during the competition.
2. Teams are expected to bring enough spare parts. Even in the case of any accidents or
equipment malfunction, the organizing committee is not responsible for their maintenance or
replacement.
3. The motors voltages should not exceed 12 V and the sensors should not be more powerful
than the standard Lego NXT sensors and motors should not be more powerful than the (350
RPM). Any motor or sensor beyond the specified range should be declared. Judges will
examine the case and either accept or assign a penalty to the robot. The only exception is
the open category which does not have any restriction on motors or sensors.
4. Prior to competing, each team must prepare for the match in their specified area until the
start of the game.
5. Some of the games consist of more than one round.
6. For some games, a team will have three (3) qualifying runs to perform the challenge. Each
team must declare to an Arena Judge that they are prepared to perform a timed run. The
Arena Judge will then time the team’s run. When all three runs are completed, the Arena
Judge will calculate the team’s score.
7. Teams may alter or modify their robots between runs.
8. The score calculation is done by the judges at the conclusion of each round. At the end of each
round, the judges of the game will give a score to each of competing teams.
9. The ranking of a team is decided by their best score of a round. If competing teams acquire
the same points (tie), the ranking is decided by the record of time (where time has not already
been taken into consideration of the scores calculations). If teams still remains tied, rankings
will be determined by consistency of the performance by examining which team achieved the
next highest score during the previous rounds.
10. The robotic competition will run from 10am till 2pm. From 8:30-10:00AM is allocated to team
registration and practice runs. During this time each team can take turn in performing practice
runs.
11. Registration fee is 150 dirhams per team.
D. Prohibited matters
Any of the following offenses result in an automatic disqualification of the team involved
1. Destruction of competition courts/tables, materials or robots of other teams.
2. Use of dangerous items or behaviours that may create or cause interference with the
competition.
3. Inappropriate words and/or behaviour toward other members, other teams, audience,
judges or staff.
4. Any other situation which judges might consider as interference or violation of the spirit of
the competition.
Soccer (Mini Volleyball)
Level: High School
The remotely-controlled robot you have to build shall be the winner of a volleyball-like
competition. One competition round lasts 5 minutes, and is as follows:
10-cm height border
65 cm
10-cm height
wood
(target)
65 cm
65 cm
Starting
zone
20 cm
20 cm
Starting
zone
25 cm
1.5 m
20 cm
65 cm
20 cm
3m
A.1
Two robots are placed in an arena. The arena is 1.5 meters wide and 3 meters long, and
protected on all sides with a fence with a height of 10 cm. Each side contains a robot
starting zone delimited with a black line (located at the middle of the robot’s camp). In
the middle of the arena, there is a border of 10 cm height. There are also two targets
on each side of the arena (see the above figure), with a width of 20 cm and a height of
10 cm.
A.2
Four red balls are placed randomly in one camp and other four blue balls are placed
randomly in the other camp. The ball is 5 cm in diameter.
A.3
Your goal is to move all balls, red and blue, in your camp to the opponent’s camp.
A.4
For each ball hits the opponent’s target, 3 points will be awarded.
A.5
At the end of the competition, each robot gets a number of points based on the number
of balls located in the other's robot camp. For example, if you start the game with the
four red balls in your camp, you get 2 points for each red ball in the other robot’s camp
and one point for each blue ball in the other robot’s camp.
A.6
The winning robot is the one with the highest score. However, during the play, if there
are no balls in one of the robot’s camp at any instant, that robot will be announced the
winner immediately and the round finishes.
If the ball is thrown out of the arena, the judge will place it randomly in the robot’s
A.7
camp who throw it outside.
A.8
The matches will be played in two stages similar to world cup. The winner will be
qualified to the second round and the loser will be eliminated.
A.9
If a match results in a tie, in terms of points, the winner will be the one who scored
more goals. If it is still a tie, the robot with less number of balls in its camp is the winner.
A.10
A robot shall never get in the other's robot camp. If this happens, the robot will lose 5
points.
A.11
The robot can weigh between 800 grams up to 2000 grams.
A.12
Robots should use 12v batteries. Batteries could be mounted on the robots or the remote
control. No external power supply is allowed except the batteries.
A.13
The depth of the component controlling the ball may not be deeper than 10cm.
Penalties:
The following actions by the robot will result in a penalty as described below:

Any robot that moves before the referee starts the match will receive a yellow card.

Any human interference that affects the game and the opponents’ robots will result in
a yellow card.

Upon receiving two yellow cards, your robot has to move to the starting point and one
ball will be taken from the other robot’s camp and placed in your camp.
Specification of the robot

The robot must be contained in a cube of 30 cm maximum on each dimension, apart
from the height, to support the compass sensor, and apart from the ball.

It may change its shape (by deploying elements, or withdrawing some) during game
phases, but it must remain all the time in the aforementioned dimensions.

Your robot is allowed to lose parts on purpose - or not ;-) - during the game.
Storage Challenge
Level: High School
30 cm
m
20 cm
m
40 cm
m
20 cm
m
90 cm
m
40 cm
m
40
cm
m
25 cm
m
Small Cubes
area
30 cm
m
25 cm
m
40 cm
m
20 cm
m
35 cm
m
2m
Starting
Zone
35 cm
m
Cube
area
30 cm
m
30 cm
m
20 cm
m
30 cm
90 cm
m
The autonomous robot (no remote control) you have to build shall be used in a storage area to
segregate cubes with different sizes and carry them to their designated areas.
30 cm
m
Big Cubes
area
25 cm
m
80 cm
m
2m
B.1
The Field is (2 × 2) m. The cubes will be placed in the left-bottom corner of the field
in a square area with a length of 40 cm. The robot starts at the “Starting Zone”,
moves to the cube area, carry a cube and then decides if it is small or big. Based on
this decision, the robot should push/carry the cube to the designated area, as shown
in the above figure.
B.2
Each small cube has a length of 5 cm while the big cube has a length of 8 cm.
B.3
The robot can follow the lines to find its way to the designated area. The red line
leads to the “small cubes area” and the blue line leads to the “big cubes area”. The
robot can follow the lines as well to find its way back to the “cubes area” to collect
another cube. The robot can follow any path it wants, i.e. it is not mandatory to follow
the lines.
B.4
The “Starting Zone” is delimited by a black line, the “small cubes area” is delimited
by a red line, and the “big cubes area” is delimited by a blue line.
B.5
The field is protected on all sides with a fence height of 10 cm.
B.6
There will be 2 small cubes and 2 big cubes.
B.7
Each small cube placed correctly in its area will receive 4 points and for each big
cube placed correctly in its area will receive 2 points. The cube should be completely
inside the designated area in order to receive the points.
B.8
If a cube is placed in the wrong area, 2 points will be deducted.
B.9
If the robot place all of the cubes in their respective areas within 3 minutes, it will
receive 5 bonus points. If the robot returns to the starting point after placing all the
cubes in their respective areas within 3 minutes, it will receive 10 bonus points.
B.10
One round lasts for 3 minutes. Each team will have 3 rounds and the best round,
with the highest points scored, will be considered. In case of a tie between two teams,
the second-highest round for each team will be considered.
Open Competition
Robotic Demonstration
C.1 This category is open to invited Primary, Middle, and High School students; in
addition to University Students.
C.2 The purpose of this category is to allow any team to demonstrate their robotic creation
or ideas. The robots in this category will be judged based on their demo, capabilities,
design, robustness and complexity.
C.3
Teams may prepare, if they wish to, a poster to show the aim, design, functionalities
of their demonstration.