[Dprglist] More Re: LF Challenge questions

[Ron Grant]

John,
Somewhere in this text should be answers to most of your questions..

The course as it exists now is paper backed with Tyvek and is somewhat wrinkled. It uses red lines for tile borders that are about 0.01" to 0.02" wide (I believe). Doug Paradis is the author of the SVG file used to create the course.

Using physical tiles is great except they weigh about 100 lbs and are time consuming to set up.
Inkjet printing on banner material seems like a really nice alternative because the course can be easily rolled out/rolled up.
 
Also, printing sample subset(s) of the course can be handy. I created some approximations of the course which have served me well.
In some cases I opted to bend the rules to get more features in a small area. Also, my sample courses have tile borders that don't conform to any standard (magenta lines 1/4" thick..)

Since Carl has invested much effort in his line follower, my suggestion is to defer to him what he wants to do with the course, but the general thinking is if we are going to invest $150 for a banner print, we might want to make a few minor changes.

Also, Doug suggested that if someone wants to request the original course, they can run on it, otherwise here is a list of what might get changed.

1. 6 Inch border which may contain text near edge of banner.
2. Remove annotation text except bury darkness numbers in stains using low contrast text (20,40,60..) Start and Stop text could be moved over into border region.

3. Replace red tile lines with cross hairs  1" x 1" using something like  x 0.1" wide red/magenta  lines
4. Add a DPRG logo (probably in a tile adjacent to 80% stain tile)
5. Possibly reflect one of the "diagonal bend" lines on edge of course. Not so important now, except that is near a location that it might be handy to
place course ID text.    

In any case we will make available SVG and PDF files. SVG can be edited by Inkscape for example. PDF files are readily submitted to banner printing company which would allow anyone to print their own course that is "nearly identical" to the contest course. Will Kuhnle did note some minor variation in banner "shades" of white.

For example using stickersbanners.com
 Full sized course is 7x13 x $1.65/sq.ft  ($150)  Smaller courses same sq.ft  - no added shipping cost - arrives next day (in DFW area).
Leaving border off can save money if you want to supply your own.

Of course printing your own course using whatever means is an option.


Ron

















 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: John Swindle <swindle at compuserve.com>
To: dprglist <dprglist at lists.dprg.org>
Sent: Mon, Jan 15, 2018 1:04 am
Subject: [Dprglist] More Re: LF Challenge questions





Great meeting! Members really let their feeling be shown. Good stuff.
 
Regarding LF Challenge:
 
Ron mentioned that the physical LF Challenge course might be printed without the grey lines separating the tiles and would instead have crosshairs to let judges know which tile the robot was in. Can I see a version of the course that Ron and Carl have agreed on? They have also changed overall boundaries of the arena different from what's on the website.
 
Although I think the original idea of speckled physical tiles with gaps in the tiles and with black tape was a great idea (so that you could plop them down randomly), the idea of almost pristine black and white with no jitter in the tile placement in the current competition makes things simpler. 
 
So, can I see an image of the new course? The old rules said that the layout will be constant until someone wins, but removing the tile boundaries makes most algorithms simpler, while making ones based on tile recogintion worse.
 
Thinking of all the screwups Tesla makes, throwing away millions of their investor's dollars, wishing I could throw away a few thousand of those millions,
 
John Swindle
 





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