Rules

//**NOTE:** These rules are final barring any changes made by unit staff to ensure fair competition for students. Changes, if any, are likely to come after the preliminary competition. If there is a scenario or robot design not covered by the rules below, please email Wai.Ho.Li@monash.edu to clarify.//

Detailed Rules for the ECE3091 Engineering Design Othello Project

 * 1) Each heat of the competition will last for **5 minutes**. This will be preceded by 3 minutes of preparation time where each team will position their robot in the correct starting area (see @Arena).
 * 2) At the start of the competition heat, there will be a 20 seconds grace period for each team to start their robot. If a team touches their robot after this time, they will lose 5 points on each occasion.
 * 3) After the competition heat, each robot will receive 1 point for each puck that is lying on the floor with the robot's assigned colour uppermost. No points will be counted towards either team's score for a puck if it is lying on its edge or not touching the floor.
 * 4) At the start and end of the competition each robot should consist of one unit. No robot will be allowed to start the competition in more than one piece and if it finishes in more than one piece that team will lose 5 points. Comment from Andy Russell: What does "one piece" mean? It means that if I pick up your robot, all parts of the robot will be lifted at the same time (so pieces attached by a length of string or wire will be a separate unit)
 * 5) Robots that have been designed to damage the opponent's robot (in the opinion of the staff judges) will be disqualified from the competition heat. Their opponent wins the heat by default.
 * 6) Pucks are cylindrical pieces of polystyrene foam with a diameter of around 70mm and a height of about 25mm. One of the flat faces of the puck is red, the other blue. The colour of the curved surface of the puck will be some mixture of red, white and blue (pun intended)
 * 7) Each robot will start the competition within its allocated starting square (roughly 300mm by 300mm) marked out on the floor with masking tape (see @Arena). **No part of the robot should extend beyond the starting square.**
 * 8) Robots will be built from the supplied Default Components. Each team is allowed to spend their own money on additional items, which must be itemised and costed in a budget within the final report. The cost of additional items must not exceed AUS$120. It is recommended that the list be developed on the Team Wiki during the course of the semester to prevent missing any items.
 * 9) Additional items may not include any sources of power other than Alkaline, Ni-MH or Ni-Cd batteries.
 * 10) The robot should be designed so that they do not damage the pucks as they manipulate them.
 * 11) The Arena will have hard flooring similar to the project lab's vinyl floor. Floor may have small discontinuities due to tiles.
 * 12) ﻿Robot must be completely autonomous (no remote controls of any kind).
 * 13) Teams should not touch the arena walls or pucks during the competition. Doing so carries the same 5-point penalty as touching the robot.
 * 14) The unit staff in charge of a competition may permit the violation of Rules 4 and 13 at no point cost in situations such as two robots being accidentally entangled during a collision.