<div dir="ltr">John,<div> I always enjoy your emails. They routinely look at things in a different light. I will attempt to answer your questions and fix the LF rule document.</div><div><br></div><div> A little history, in 2014/15 an effort was made by a group of members to see if the rules could be distilled to what was important and drop some of the convoluted "legalize" aspects that were in the rules at the time. The result was generally good, but sometimes nuances were lost.</div><div><br></div><div> Q: ... <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:13.3333px">If that kind of movement of the robot is acceptable, then the robot (a real physical one) does not actually have to follow curvature of the line: It just has to move from entry points to exit points.</span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:13.3333px"> A: The rules state "</span>The front and rear of a competing robot must enter and exit every element of the course. If a
robot overshoots or loses the line and recovers, its recovery course must take it through the
adjacent element. Under-shooting an element or taking a wrong turn at an intersection
disqualifies the robot’s run." The original purpose of the "Additional Information" was to define when a robot became lost. A robot was lost if it skipped a tile or undershot a tile. The classic lost robot making an undershoot is when a robot jumps from one of the curves in a "Double Curve" block to the other ( see allowed elements). I would interpret the rules as a robot must follow the line or it is undershooting, which is not allowed. I will adjust the rules to specifically state that the robot must follow the curvature of the line or the implied curvature of the line where the line is not contiguous. </div><div><br></div><div> Q. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:13.3333px">If the specific contest rules don't mention "self-contained", then does that mean the robot can use external resources?</span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:13.3333px"> A: Yes. The club has been loosing the rules for the last couple of years to allow external resources. Several in-door contests now do not require a robot to be self-contained. However, non-self-contained is meant to allow external computing power. Beacons or sensors may be covered in other rules of the contest. For example, Can-Can soccer has restrictions on where beacons can be placed. </span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:13.3333px"><br></span></div><div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica"><span style="font-size:13.3333px"> Rule Language Inconsistencies: There was a decision at the last rules revision to rename the LF levels from Beginner, Senior, Advanced to Novice, Advanced, Challenge (note: the Challenge level course has always been named the "Challenge" level course) . Also, the rules were specifically to outline what contest that would be held at Roborama. These level were the Novice and Advanced, which both only have black lines on white fields, and that is where the error made it way into the document. I will look over the rules again and make sure everything is consistent. Thanks for pointing out the problems. </span></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica"><span style="font-size:13.3333px"><br></span></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica"><span style="font-size:13.3333px">I will publish the modified rule set for review. </span></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica"><span style="font-size:13.3333px"><br></span></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica"><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Regards,</span></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica"><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Doug P.</span></font></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Nov 11, 2017 at 5:21 PM, John Swindle <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:swindle@compuserve.com" target="_blank">swindle@compuserve.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><font color="black" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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<div style="font-size:10pt">Folks:</div>
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<div style="font-size:10pt">I enjoyed seeing the 6-can contest today, and seeing the work Carl and Ron are doing on the Challenge Level Line Following contest.</div>
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<div style="font-size:10pt">Carl explained that his simulation defines a single move from the entry-point of the square, to the exit-point of the square, or more correctly, either the exit point of the current square to the exit point of the next square, or the entry point of the current square to the entry point of the next square.</div>
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<div style="font-size:10pt">If that kind of movement of the robot is acceptable, then the robot (a real physical one) does not actually have to follow curvature of the line: It just has to move from entry points to exit points.</div>
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<div style="font-size:10pt">So, since the LF course layout is a fixed pattern until someone wins, what about just doing odometry or sonar/LIDAR to the room's walls (to correct the odometry, like what Neato does, ignoring obstacles and only looking at walls), and follow the fixed pattern of the course layout using corrected odometry?</div>
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<div style="font-size:10pt">Separately:</div>
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<div style="font-size:10pt">If the specific contest rules don't mention "self-contained", then does that mean the robot can use external resources? Or is there a set of global rules for all contests, covering things like self-containment?</div>
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<div style="font-size:10pt">And just a note: The first sentence of the LF rules state that there are three levels. Then the second sentence states that there are two levels (with a different name). (I do tech writing. I see these things. Especially when they are in adjacent sentences. Especially when they are the first two sentences that I read. Kinda like a JEDEC standard.) <span style="font-size:10pt">I suggest that the second sentence be deleted.</span></div>
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<div style="font-size:10pt">And another item: The first sentence says the robot follows a black line. I think the line color change tile was added after that first sentence was written. In any event, it's not always a black line.</div>
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<div style="font-size:10pt">Best to you all,</div>
<div style="font-size:10pt">John Swindle</div>
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