NXTasy Challenge No. 1 - Throw Me!, Description and Rules Options

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NXTasy Challenge No. 1 - Throw Me!

General
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The challenge is simple - throw the blue plastic ball from the NXT set as far as possible.

Deadline
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Deadline is December 1st, 2006. This should be enough for those who live in countries where NXT distribution starts in October.

Participation
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Free to everyone, as long as they use an NXT kit (either educational or retail set). Must be a registered forum member.

Prizes
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The winner will be awarded a new digital compass sensor, courtesy of HiTechnic. Thanks HiTechnic! Addtionally, the top 5 participants will receive a 25% discount coupon (valid for 3 months) for their next purchase at mindsensors.com. Thanks mindsensors!

Rules
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1. Robots should be made of 100% LEGO parts with the exception of pneumatic parts. You may, however, use wires and other material which *cannot* store any mechanical energy themselves. So elastic materials (including LEGO elastic materials) such as rubber bands, springs etc. are not allowed. Also, any non-LEGO part which the judges think *can* be built using the parts from the NXT set, will not be allowed.
2. Robots should be able to stay for infinite time in one of two *static* positions - "Idle" and Armed". In static, we mean there's no continuous motion of any part at this stage.
3. An idle robot, once receiving a command (either using a button, Bluetooth, light or sound signal) should start any "arming procedure" it requires. The arming procedure should not take more then 2 minutes to complete.
4. Once arming is complete, the robot should signal it is in armed state by a short beep.
5. Loading the blue ball can be done either manually in the idle state or armed state, or automatically by the robot during the arming procedure.
6. Once in armed state and loaded, the robot should wait to the "fire" command (again, choose between a button, Bluetooth, light or sound signal).
7. Upon receiving the fire command the robot should fire immediately, releasing the ball completely within 30 seconds.
8. The ball must not be affected by any force (except gravity and friction..) during its flight
9. After firing the ball, the robot must return to the same idle state, ready for a second round, within 2 minutes
10. During the whole process, the robot must not move *forward* by more then 1 cm. *Backward* movement is allowed.

Questions regarding these rules can be sent by email to challenge@nxtasy.org. If these are of general interest, the answer will be posted in the NXT Challenge forum "Questions and Answers" topic.

How to compete
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Since this competition is worldwide, we have no way to come test your robots. Therefore to compete you would have to give both written and visual information to the competition judges. Be fair! If we decide that you do not supply accurate information you may be banned from competing again in future competitions.

Please provide *all* of the following:
1. Your name (also a nick name if you prefer us not using your real name on site), your email, your address (in case you're the winner!).
2. A name for your robot (optional)
3. A detailed description of the mechanism you used to move to "armed" state have your robot stay there
4. A detailed description of the arming procedure
5. A detailed description of the firing procedure
6. A detailed description of the mechanism you used to move back to "idle" state
7. A overall picture of your robot
8. A detailed picture (or pictures) showing all elements of the firing mechanism and energy storing elements. Mark on picture each element with numbers/letters
9. A description of the elements in firing mechanism, numbered as in previous section
10. A list of non LEGO parts used
11. The distance your robot has managed to throw the ball to in the "Record Video" (see below)

Since the last piece of information is the most crucial one, we require that you supply a *video* file (any regular internet format is fine, just don't send 50M avi files. We can not accept files larger then 8M) showing your "Record Video". To have your robot fill the requirements from the competition please follow *carefully* the following instructions:

1. Draw a 1 cm thick black line. Place your robot at the edge of the line, so that no part of it protrude over the line.
2. Place a tape measure (sewing measuring tape might work best if long enough) starting at the black line (on the same edge your robot is) and spread it evenly over the floor. Use two-side tape to hold it in place. The line of flight of the ball should be no more then 5 cm away of the tape measure.
3. Spread sand or any colored powder on the floor, in the area where your ball hits the ground. The sand must be thick enough so that the ball does not jump as it hits ground.
4. Start your video film by shooting from low angle (near ground), showing that the robot does no exceed the black line.
5. Focus on the robot itself, film it as it do the arming procedure and loading procedure.
6. Move to wide field, and show the progress of the ball projection. One must be able to see in the frame both the robot and the ball during the whole flight.
7. Move camera above robot, show that it does not cross the black line.
8. Move camera above ball, make sure one clearly sees the ball, and the tape measure numbers.
9. Show that the robot has indeed returned to the same "idle" state (except it might have moved *backwards*, which is ok)

All the above information must be complete in order for your robot to compete. Send textual information as simple ascii files, Word files or PDF files. Send pictures as jpeg files.

You may either send files to challenge@nxtasy.org, or put files on your own storage space (or free server such as YouTube) and provide links to the files to challenge@nxtasy.org.

Winner
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The winning robot would be the one which get the ball the farthest. If two robots reach the same distance, the competition judges will decide the winner based on other criteria such as firing rate, originality and appearance.

We hope this would be a good, fair, and enjoyable competition to everyone!