Nexus: NaviGate

Introduction

Robots are becoming integral part of our lives. The prophecy says that the time will come when
artificial intelligences will have to cater the needs of humans to access the inaccessible.

A technology to identify a correct remote object and to carry it back to a base camp has become
an important utility form, the military and the space scientists for identifying IEDs or collecting
samples from mars to the pirates for treasure hunt.

NaviGate provides you a unique opportunity to explore and polish your skills in this field at a basic
level. Start from the base camp to traverse an undulated terrain and detect a correct rock from a
set of rocks in a given area. On identification, the rock has to be brought back to the base camp in
the shortest possible time.

What are you waiting for?

The quest has begun and the time is running.

Start moving or else it will be too late to catch others...

Problem Statement
Make an autonomous bot that traverses a grid to find a specific block and brings it back to the top
of a ramp.

Arena
1. The arena will consist of a 5 x 5 squares grid of white lines on a black surface. The lines will be
equally spaced. Each cell of the grid will be a square with inner dimensions 220 mm x 220 mm. The
total size of the upper outer square is 1550 mm x 1550 mm. The thickness of each white line is 30
mm.
2. At the start of each run, the machine must be placed at the top of a ramp within a horizontal
square of 220 mm x 220 mm (Starting Zone). This ramp will have a height of 135 mm and a length
of 750 mm.
3. A “Block” is a 100 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm. There will be 2 types of such blocks.
Block A - The colour of the block will be white.2 such blocks will be placed randomly in the grid
(see figure 3).
Block B – Each of its 4 vertical faces will be divided into 2 equal halves. The colour of the upper
half will be black. The colour of the lower half will be white. Its 2 flat faces will be white.1 such
block will be placed randomly in the grid (see figure 4).

Each block will be placed such that it coincides with the centre point of a grid intersection as
closely as possible. The block is made of non-magnetic material and has a maximum weight of 60
gms. The pictures of the block are given below.
4. The dimensions of the arena would be accurate to within 5% or 20 mm, whichever is less.
Assembly joints on the arena floor will not involve steps greater than 0.5 mm.

Figure 1: 3d Arena
Figure 2: Arena with zones

Figure 3: Block A Figure 4: Block B

 Machine Specifications

 Dimensions and Fabrications

1. The machine must fit within a square of dimensions 200mm x 200mm (l x b).
2. The machine must be stable and must stand on its own at the beginning of the race when put in
the starting zone. Machines not fulfilling this criterion will be disqualified.
3. During the run, the machine can expand itself provided it does not damage the arena in anyway.
However, it is not allowed to leave anything behind or make any marks while traversing the grid.
All machines found damaging the arena will be immediately disqualified. The final decision is at
the discretion of the judges.
4. The machine should not separate or split into two or more units. All machines/units which are
touching each other or are in the start zone will be considered as one machine.
5. The methods of collection and delivery of the blocks are at the discretion of the builder. But use of
ready-made mechanical kits is not allowed.
6. The teams are allowed to use ready-made wireless modules/ready-made micro-controller
boards/ready-made sensor kits.

 Power Supply and Propulsion

1. The machines have to use an on-board power supply. No external power supply will be allowed.
2. Each team shall prepare its own power supply for all its machines.
3. The potential difference between any two points on any of the machines must not exceed 24 V
DC.
4. The method of propulsion is at the discretion of the builder, provided that the power source is
non-polluting.
5. In case the machine is using a non-electric power supply, kindly get it approved from the
organizers beforehand via email. Organizers are not responsible for inconvenience if approval is
not sought.

 Controls

1. The machine must be completely autonomous.

2. It should not receive any input from outside the arena.
 Rules

 Game rules

1. The maximum time given for completing the task is 4 minutes. Maximum of two runs will be given
to a team (Best score from the 2 runs will be considered as the team’s score). A maximum of two
restarts will be allowed per run.
2. At the start of the task the machine will be placed in the starting zone. Only 1 member from the
team is allowed to be near the game field while starting the machine.
3. The machine must be started by only 1 switch. The starting procedure of the machine should be
simple and should not involve giving machine any manual force or impulse in any direction.
4. The organizers will start measuring time as soon as the front edge of the machine crosses the
starting line.
5. During restarts, a contestant must not feed information about the grid to the machine. However,
contestants are allowed to: adjust sensors (gain, position etc.), change speed settings and make
repairs. However, a contestant may not alter a machine in a manner that alters its weight (e.g.
removal of a bulky sensor array or switching to lighter batteries to get better speed). The judges
shall arbitrate.
6. The team will be given a chance to calibrate their machine once before the run.
7. The machine has to carry the Block B back to the starting zone.
8. During the run if any block gets displaced from its original location and lies somewhere else in the
central zone, it will be picked up and put back to any other random grid point.
9. During a restart, the machine will have to be restarted by putting it back on the starting zone
square. For a restart, the machine will have to be in Power Off mode. And turned on again at the
start square on the signal of the judges. In a restart, the timer will not be set back to zero.
10. For a restart, any block that the machine may be carrying will be taken back and put back to any
other random grid point.
11. Each team is allowed a maximum of 2 restarts. All restarts require the approval of the presiding
Judges before the machine can be removed from the arena. The team will be disqualified if the
robots were handled within the arena without approval.
12. The machine is not allowed to leave anything behind while traversing the grid. It should not make
any marks on the floor of the arena. Any machine found damaging the arena will be immediately
disqualified.
13. Team members will not be allowed to handle the boxes. Only officials are allowed to handle the
boxes in any situation.
14. Only one pair of machine handlers per entry is allowed. The machine handlers from a previous
entry are not allowed to handle another team’s machine.
15. Participants are not allowed to keep anything inside the arena other than the machine.
16. Laptops/personal computers are not allowed near the arena. Other Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc devices
must be switched off. The organizers hold the right to check for these devices and their usage.
17. The contest judges may stop any robot at any time if they feel that it is performing, or is about to
perform, any action that is dangerous or hazardous to people or equipment. No robot is allowed
to use any flammable, combustible, explosive or potentially dangerous processes.
18. The time measured by the organizers will be final and will be used for scoring the teams. Time
measured by any contestant by any other means is not acceptable for scoring.
19. In case of any disputes / discrepancies, the organizers' decision will be final and binding.
20. The organizers reserve the rights to change any or all of the above rules as they deem fit. Change
in rules, if any will be highlighted on the website and notified to the registered teams.

 Scoring

1. The competition time for a team start form the moment the front edge of the machine crosses the
starting line.
2. The timer will stop as soon as the machine finishes the task.
3. The task is considered to be finished when both the machine and the Block B completely cross the
starting line or the time for the task reaches 4 minutes.
4. The team’s score will be equal to :
Score = 240 – T
Where, T is the total time taken to complete the task in seconds or T equals 240 if the team is
unable to complete the entire task in 4 minutes.
5. The better score of the two runs, for a team will be considered as the final score of the team.

Judging Criteria

 Judging Criterion

The team’s score will be equal to:

Score = 240 – T
Where, T is the total time taken to complete the task in seconds or T equals 240 if the team is
unable to complete the entire task in 4 minutes.

The winners will be decided by the better of these scores for the total run.

In case of a tie, a rerun will be given to the respective teams.

 Certificate Policy

The top 3 teams emerging from this competition will be awarded a Certificate of Excellence.
 All teams which will complete the task within the stipulated time (score > 0) will be awarded a
Certificate of Participation.

 Team Specification
A team may consist of (a maximum of) 4 participants. Students from different educational
institutes can form a team.

 Eligibility
All students with a valid identity card of their respective educational institutes are eligible to
participate in NaviGate at above-mentioned Nexus Centres.