Autonomous Robotic Competition

Overview

Robots battle robots in a do-or-die competition of mayhem and destruction! 3D printed robots fight till they can't with a variety of weapons and strategies. This competition is held at the end of fall semester - dates below! The BYU Combat Robotics clubis partnering with us closely for this competition. Build events will be held by them every week to help students with their robots.

All high school and college students are welcome to compete! (This includes grad students). We also especially invite BYU alumni to participate. Note that no more than 32 student teams (high school or college) and no more than 32 alumni teams can participate due to time constraints.

Kickoff: Sept 14th, 6-8 pm EB event space
Mid-semester Review: Nov 2nd, 6-8 pm EB event space
Safety Inspection Build Night: Nov 16th, 6-8 pm 413 CB
Competition: Dec 2nd, 10 am to 3 pm WSC Garden Court

Kickoff and the competition will be live-streamed, available at ARC Youtube livestream

Build Nights: Thursdays 6-8 pm 413 CB

Details

This competition is SPARC compliant: a set of shared rules and regulations. Ant Annihilation is in the Ant weight plastics class (1lb max). View the following SPARC documents for details on robot construction, arena dimensions, etc... We've modified them to remove information that doesn't apply for our competition for your reading convenience. You may read previous revisions in the "Previous Document Revisions" section. Here's the current versions:

Judging Guidelines
Match Rules
Robot Constructions Specifications
Tournament Procedures

Resources & Tips
Check out the guide and tips for parts and materials here.

Another great resource, an intro to ant weight robotics slide deck from another competition, can be found here. They have a different arena and weight limit, in addition to their competition not being in the plastics class, but it has some great ideas for weapon categories and parts. Just keep in mind that all weapons and armor must be made of PLA, PETG, ABS, or similar material, the weight limit is 1lb., and the robot must fit in a 1ft cube for Ant Annihilation.

The Prototyping Lab

The Prototyping lab has a CNC mill that participants can use to cut their armor or weapons out of solid ABS, PETG, PLA, etc. to increase strength (They only 3d print in esun PLA). They also have manual mills and lathes that can cut simpler designs. Participants are welcome to go to the Prototyping Lab (EB 117), but you must understand the following from Dave Laws, the Lab Supervisor:

• If they wish to make a machined or CNC part, they will need to spend sufficient time in the lab to be trained on the machine, learn the machine, practice with the machine, create their own CAM program and toolpath and then make the part themselves. This takes considerable time and effort but we are willing to aid them along on this journey.
• “…students will need to plan well ahead to accomplish this task.
• “…class assigned projects and research take priority to club projects and personal work.
• “As you can see this process is not trivial and certainly not quick, but again, we are happy to help walk students through it as long as they are committed to the time and effort required and they plan sufficiently ahead of time to make it happen.”

Funding
Each student team will receive a $100 bot building budget to use through BYU's Electrical and Computer Engineering Experiential Learning Center Shop (aka the ELC shop or Ecen shop). Teams can go over budget (with their own funds), under budget, use what parts they have, etc. The budget is provided as a resource for all student teams (high school, undergraduate, or graduate students from any school). A Qualtrics survey will be available for teams to submit purchases.

Teams qualified for off-campus purchases use this link to record them properly.

Prizes
The winning student and alumni teams will win a cash prize and a trophy.

Team size
Student teams will have a minimum of 2 people and a maximum of 4 people. Alumni teams will have a maximum of 4 people but no minimum.

Questions & Contacts

If you have questions about robot construction and arena specifications, check out the FAQ below and the links under the "Details" section. Those documents probably answer your questions. If not, contact us with your questions:

Katie Price (Competition Manager & ECEn shop tech): katienan@byu.edu

Cole Cecil (BYU Combat Robotics Club Representative):
anthonycolececil@gmail.com
720-680-8616

ECEn Shop:
416 Clyde Building (CB), M-F 8-5
ecenshop@gmail.com
801-422-4279

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Are we allowed to use a bluetooth controller to control the bot?
A: Bluetooth does use a “channel-hopping” or “spread-spectrum” radio connection and is allowed for Ant Annihilation, but it does have a bit of a delay on it. You are welcome to use and experiment with Bluetooth.
Q: Would we be able to use a fan for downforce?
A: Fans! That’s a really great question. Only magnets are disallowed for enhancing downforce. Feel free to experiment with fans for downforce as you wish, but keep the 1lb weight limit in mind.
Q: If there are parts we need which aren't in the BYU shop, can we order them from other sources as part of our budget?
A: Yes. I have a Qualtrics survey set up to collect orders and school building addresses to ship to and all of the details. I’ll make sure to get you guys access to that after I’ve got it all set up.
Q: What is the definition of a non-wheeled robot? How can I get the 100% weight bonus to be at 2lbs instead of 1lb?
A: Any robot propelled directly by rotating components (this includes tank treads) is a wheeled vehicle and gets no weight bonus. Shufflers get a 50% weight bonus. These have legs propelled by rotating components indirectly. See https://transistor-man.com/fission_product.html for an example.
Non-wheeled robots (hovercraft, linear actuated legs, crab crawlers, hoppers, etc.) get a 100% weight bonus.
If you think your robot qualifies for any weight bonus, check with event organizers to avoid being outside your weight limit on the day of the competition.
Q: When can I start using my funding and how?
A: As soon as you have signed up with your team and team name, you can come to the ECEn shop in 416 CB to get your purchasing group set up. A week after you sign up, you will be emailed a link and access to a purchasing Qualtrics form. This form may be used to order materials from online vendors.
Those who initially sign up alone cannot use their funding until they have a team and have submitted a team name by re-taking the sign-up Qualtrics.
Q: Where can I 3D print?
A: The ECEn shop has two small Prusa Slicers for printing submitted projects. Go to the Project Submission tab above to submit a 3D print to the shop. Prints are $0.15/gram of filament used. Your budget may be used to pay for 3D prints at the ECEn shop.
3D printers are also available for use in the maker space in the library and in the Additive Manufacturing Lab on the first floor of the EB.
You can also order filament through the Qualtrics survey to use on your own printer.
Q: What does the spirit of the plastics class entail?
A: SPARC says: “The spirit of these classes is to have an easy entry point for new builders and to encourage creative designs by limiting materials to plastics that are easy to work with, commonly used in 3D printers, and don’t have strength characteristics common in the standard classes.”
This means that any augmentation of the allowed materials (PET, PETG, ABS, PLA, or PLA+) with any other material, is against the spirit of the class. Using ABS-dipped wood/aluminum/etc. for armor is NOT in line with the spirit of the plastics class. Weighting weapons with material other than PET, PETG, ABS, PLA, or PLA+ is against the spirit of the class. Having external metal gears or springs or other sharp metal that may damage another bot’s plastic armor is against the spirit of the class, but they may be used internally (plastic gears are vastly inferior to metal ones). See the construction specifications rules document for more details.

Previous Document Revisions

These are older versions of those linked above in the "Details" section. Note that the original documents may be found on the SPARC website.

View this Google Drive folder to view previous versions of the Judging Guidelines, Match Rules, Robot Contstructions Specifications, and Tournament Procedures documents. Note that those documents with the word "edit" and no "display" in the name include the revisions and commentary for your information. Those documents with "display" in the name are those that are displayed on this page. Currently, the links show the latest versions.

Sign Up

Signups open September 14th. Student Signups close October 14th. Alumni Signups close October 28th.

Dates

Kickoff: January 23, 2023, at 5 PM in the EB Event Space

Mid-Semester Review: March 16, 2023, at 5 PM in the EB Event Space

Competition: April 15, 2023, from Noon to 3 PM in the EB Event Space

Weekly build nights: Every Tuesday night from 5-6 PM in Clyde 413

Rules

View this google doc for in-depth Competition Rules

Basic Specifications

Arena

• Diameter of 106 cm, outer ring with a width of 3.5 cm

Robots

• Must fit in a 15cm by 15cm box
• Must start with an IR signal, a receiver should be on top of the robot
• Once the robot receives that signal, it must wait 5 seconds before starting

Contact Info

John Carmen (Project Lead): johncarmen400@gmail.com

For questions specific to the arena design, please contact Nathan Horne:

nchorne.scholastic@gmail.com