Clean The Room — Contest Rules
Overview
The RSSC "Clean The Room" contest challenges your robot to perform a useful, practical task autonomously: cleaning up a room by throwing away three empty soda cans. Any type of autonomous robot is welcome.
The Room
The contest takes place in a 6-foot by 6-foot area marked off with black electrical tape on the grey tile floor outside of our meeting room at CSULB.
A 2-foot perimeter is kept clear around the room so that ultrasonic and IR sensors aren't confused by walls or bystanders within their range.
Your robot may travel outside the 6-foot box if its routine or turning radius requires it.
The Cans
Three soda cans — red, blue, and green — are placed roughly one foot apart near the center of the room by a non-contestant. The cans can be collected in any order.
You have two options for the cans themselves:
The Trash Can
You can choose one of two targets:
Starting Position
At the start, the robot can be placed anywhere inside the room, as long as it is at least 2 feet from the first can it will attempt to dispose of. The position of the cans and the position of the robot and orientation will be determined before the first participant's run, and will be consistent for all participants throughout the contest. In this contest all cans will be aligned with one of the two room boundaries not co-aligned with the brick walls in the hallway.
How to Win
The robot must identify each can and either toss, push, or drag it into the trash can (or trash outline). Points are awarded as follows:
Time limit: 5 minutes, or until the judges determine no progress is being made.
Overview
The RSSC "Clean The Room" contest challenges your robot to perform a useful, practical task autonomously: cleaning up a room by throwing away three empty soda cans. Any type of autonomous robot is welcome.
The Room
The contest takes place in a 6-foot by 6-foot area marked off with black electrical tape on the grey tile floor outside of our meeting room at CSULB.
A 2-foot perimeter is kept clear around the room so that ultrasonic and IR sensors aren't confused by walls or bystanders within their range.
Your robot may travel outside the 6-foot box if its routine or turning radius requires it.
The Cans
Three soda cans — red, blue, and green — are placed roughly one foot apart near the center of the room by a non-contestant. The cans can be collected in any order.
You have two options for the cans themselves:
- Use your own modified cans. Cans in the three colors will be provided, but they may not work reliably with your color sensors, so bringing your own is recommended.
- Use unmodified, manufactured soda cans. These are harder to identify because real cans have multiple colors on them — but if your robot pulls it off, you'll earn extra points.
The Trash Can
You can choose one of two targets:
- An 8½ × 11" outline taped onto a white sheet of paper in a corner of the room, or
- A real trash can that you provide. Feel free to add reflectors, colors, or QR codes to its sides to help your robot find it.
Starting Position
At the start, the robot can be placed anywhere inside the room, as long as it is at least 2 feet from the first can it will attempt to dispose of. The position of the cans and the position of the robot and orientation will be determined before the first participant's run, and will be consistent for all participants throughout the contest. In this contest all cans will be aligned with one of the two room boundaries not co-aligned with the brick walls in the hallway.
How to Win
The robot must identify each can and either toss, push, or drag it into the trash can (or trash outline). Points are awarded as follows:
Time limit: 5 minutes, or until the judges determine no progress is being made.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Disposes of the first can | 20 |
| Disposes of the second can | 20 |
| Disposes of the third can | 20 |
| Signals the correct color of each modified can (LEDs, sound, display, etc.) | 10 |
| Signals the correct color of each unmodified manufactured can | 10 |
| Automatically stops and signals task complete | 10 |
| Picks up and drops cans into a real trash can (rather than sliding into an outline) | 20 |
| Tiebreaker: fastest completion time | 10 |
Example of Contest