| The FRC expected a record participation,
reaching over 33,000 students comprising approximately 1300
teams representing every state in the U.S. and Brazil, Canada,
Israel, Mexico, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
This Year's Theme -- "Rack
'N' Roll"
The game is played by two (2) three-team
alliances on a field with a center structure (Rack) containing
24 "spider legs." To score, teams use three different
types of tubes called "Keepers," "Ringers,"
and "Spoilers." The game is made up of two scoring
periods:
In the first period (15 seconds), the
robots are "Autonomous" (i.e., they run without
driver control). The robots try to place a "Keeper"
tube on one of the spider legs of the Rack using a color
vision tracking system to find one of the four target lights
at the top of the rack. Once placed, a "Keeper"
tube may not be removed or "Spoiled."
During the second period (2 minutes),
the robots are driver controlled. The teams attempt to score
more points by using the robots to add "Ringers"
onto the spider legs or by "Spoiling" the opposing
teams score by placing a black tube over the "Ringer."
Points are earned and scored exponentially by the number
of consecutive Ringers and Keepers in a column or row. Alliances
may score additional points if, by the end of the match,
their robots are in their home zone and have been lifted
off the floor by 4" or more by another robot before
the final buzzer sounds.
NASA
Web Cast from the Championship event is available. |
