{"id":1302,"date":"2017-04-04T10:36:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T16:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=1302"},"modified":"2019-11-20T14:01:20","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T21:01:20","slug":"balloon-challenge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=1302","title":{"rendered":"Robot Balloon Challenge!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Mission Objective<\/h2>\n<p>Build an autonomous robot that will pop all of the balloons with pushpins\/skewers while staying inside a given area.<\/p>\n<p>Figure 1 Balloon Challenge Starting Position<\/p>\n<h2>Race Rules<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The robot must pass an inspection before the race starts to ensure no construction rules have been violated. The robot team will have a chance to make modifications before the race starts.<\/li>\n<li>The robot is placed in the center of the challenge area facing a pre-determined direction.<\/li>\n<li>When commanded, the robot driver will press the green \u201crun\u201d button and the clock will start.<\/li>\n<li>The robot must pop all of the balloons while staying in the challenge area.<\/li>\n<li>If a robot pushes a balloon off its base, then the balloon is reset by the driver as fast as they can.<\/li>\n<li>Each robot\u2019s run is timed from the time the run button is hit to the time last balloon is popped.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Robot Construction<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The robot must be based on the Standard mBot robot.<\/li>\n<li>The robot must be less than 10&#215;10 inches wide including any extensions.<\/li>\n<li>The robot is allowed up to 5 pushpins for popping balloons. These pins may be attached to the robot by any means as long as the robot doesn\u2019t violate the height and width restrictions.<\/li>\n<li>The robot must be programmed using mBlock\u00a0code programming.<\/li>\n<li>Once started, the robot must be completely autonomous.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Violations<\/h2>\n<h3>Major Infraction<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>When a major infraction occurs, the robot must be restarted from the beginning of the track without stopping the clock.<\/li>\n<li>Once the robot is moving, there can be no human intervention until the robot completes the task.<\/li>\n<li>Losing pieces while the robot is running.<\/li>\n<li>Leaving the challenge area.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Minor infractions<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>None.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Determining the winner<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The robot with the shortest time is declared the winner.<\/li>\n<li>In case of a tie, the tied contestants are allowed a run-off. The racer with the shortest run-off time is declared the winner regardless of their initial time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Play field<\/h2>\n<h3>Materials<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>A large table or flat ground with consistent coloring.<\/li>\n<li>White or black tape, whichever has more contrast against the playing surface.<\/li>\n<li>Round balloons, up to 5\u201d in diameter.<\/li>\n<li>Packing tape, or other strong tape to attach the balloons to the playing surface.<\/li>\n<li>Push pins and tape or rubber bands to attach the pushpins.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Construction<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Layout a closed area using white or black tape.<\/li>\n<li>In this area, place 3 or 4 balloons for the robot to pop.<\/li>\n<li>The balloons should be placed consistently between runs so that every robot competes on the same layout.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Figure 2 About to pop a balloon<\/p>\n<h2>Hints:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>There are many ways to solve this problem. Experiment to find the best solution.<\/li>\n<li>Attaching your pins to extensions can be tricky. If you use extensions, make sure they are placed tight on the robot.<\/li>\n<li>Sometimes you can get lucky by using a little random behavior in your robot\u2019s program.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mission Objective Build an autonomous robot that will pop all of the balloons with pushpins\/skewers while staying inside a given area. Figure 1 Balloon Challenge Starting Position Race Rules The robot must pass an inspection before the race starts to ensure no construction rules have been violated. The robot team will have a chance to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1110,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1302","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1302"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1545,"href":"https:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1302\/revisions\/1545"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shscomputers.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}