[Dprglist] Four Corners clarifications

[Doug Paradis]

John,

    The Four Corners rule set states: "The robot must travel along the
perimeter of the course and return to the spot where it started.". My
interpretation of this statement is that the robot must stay outside of the
rectangle defined by the corner marks. This might need to be clarified
specifically in the rules.



It is okay for a robot to train to recognize the corner markers/cones.  The
rule set states: "The competitor may also use the corner marks/cones as
landmarks during the run. *Note:* There is no guarantee what will
constitute a corner marker at the time of the contest.". Using the corner
markers to guide final robot placement has been done before successfully by
using a vision system with blob detection.



The difficulty is there is no foreknowledge of what the corner mark will be
in competition. If the corner marker is a small cone, as it often is, it
should be easy to use the markers to stay outside the perimeter and to use
them to guide the robot's final location. If the markers are blue painter
marks on the floor, which I have also seen, the problem is much more
difficult. Imaging of the floor to find the start location marker that the
judge places at the start of the run is prohibited.



DPRG wants competitors to be successful and use as many different methods
as possible to solve contest problems. If a contestant asked for the
corners to be marked with cones instead of tape on the floor, I think the
judges would accommodate. The reason that the markers are not more
specifically defined is to allow people setting up the competition as much
flexibility as possible. Blue painter marks on the floor would be perfectly
acceptable if all robots are using dead reckoning.



It would really be neat to see an echolocator mounted completely on the
robot. The rules do not allow beacons.



Regards,

Doug P.



On Mon, Jan 28, 2019 at 1:36 AM John Swindle <swindle at compuserve.com> wrote:

> Doug,
>
> Four Corners questions:
>
> Before a run, is it OK to measure the distance between the cones/markers
> and program that into the robot?
>
> Before a run, may a competitor train his or her robot to recognize a
> cone/marker? I assume that's a necessary step (unless the robot is
> dead-reckoning the course), but maybe I'm missing something.
>
> The robot has to stay in the "perimeter," outside the square, right? In
> Square Dance, it was OK to drive into the square so long as the robot did
> not cut off a corner.
>
>
> Turning the localizer into an echolocator is not as easy as I thought it
> would be. I should try it on Four Square to prove the low-frequency sonar
> mapping and the high-frequency sonar targeting.
>
> Thanks!
>
> John Swindle
>
>
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