Automated Demolition and Clearing

Description

The significant amount of meteorite activity on Mars has resulted in debris and dangerous materials being scattered throughout our settlements. To rapidly remove the debris we will need many rovers cleaning up autonomously, with no human supervision.

Requirements

  1. Your rover must be able to complete the operations below, with only a single input by a judge, and no further input from a judge or any member of your team.
    1. Your team must provide a user interface running on your operations that allows the judge to click on a labelled button to trigger the operation.
    2. When operations accept additional input, such as distance, bearing, or GNSS co-ordinate, they must provide a text box for entry, accepting the units listed in the rules for that operation.
    3. When operations return values they must match the associated units
    4. All buttons must be labelled in English, with either the short name or full name of the command as listed in the descriptions below in the format “[shortname] long name”.
    5. Each phase of the mission lists a set of operations needed to complete the phase, but not in the expected order. Operations may occur in any order, and may be used multiple times during a phase.
  2. Your rover may make multiple attempts at each operation, and you will be permitted to reset the rover to its starting pose (position, orientation, and mechanical configuration) between attempts without penalty.
    1. The first attempt at each operation will result in the full score for the operation. Subsequent attempts will be allowed, with a point deduction (listed in the rubric) applying to that operation.
    2. The starting position for each operation will be the intended finishing pose of the last operation, and starting positions will be marked on the ground.
    3. Judges will inform operators whether the rover successfully completed each operation.
    4. You may skip one or more operations, positioning your rover at the starting location of a future operation as a modification intervention. You may also return to previously skipped operations the same way.

The operations your rover will need to complete are grouped into several mission phases.

  1. Exit the base:
    1. Due to high traffic near the mars base your rover must be able to follow precise navigation commands while entering or exiting the base.
    2. The commands your rover will need to support are
      1. [Store Home] Store your arm and end effector to a defined home position
      2. [Drive Forward] Drive forward N meters, where N may be 1, 3, 5
      3. [Drive Backwards] Drive backwards N meters
      4. [Rotate] Rotate your rover by N degrees relative to its current orientation
      5. [Rotate and Drive] Move your rover N meters in the direction M degrees clockwise from where it’s currently facing
      6. [Face Bearing] Rotate your rover so it is facing absolute bearing N (eg 50 degrees)
      7. For monitoring purpose, you will be regularly asked to report your rover’s
        1. [Report Bearing] Current bearing
        2. [Report GNSS] Current GNSS position
  2. Travel To the Jobsite to the work assignment board
    1. Your rover will travel autonomously to a provided GNSS location to receive its work assignment.
    2. There will be natural objects in the path of the rover and it is recommended to have obstacle avoidance capabilities in order to attempt this journey solo.
    3. An obstacle-free path will also be provided, but travelling that path will be slower (and score half points) compared to the more direct route.
    4. The commands your rover will need to support are:
      1. [Drive to Waypoint] Travel so that your rover’s position reference is within 3m of the waypoint at provided GNSS coordinates.
      2. [Drive to Marked Waypoint] Travel so that your rover’s position reference is within 1m of the tower labelled with Aruco marker #3 (Drawings will be provided), located at approximately these GNSS coordinates.
      3. Any command listed from previous sections
  3. Read your Job Assignment and Clock in
    1. At the entrance to the job site is a work assignment board which will display information needed for future operations.
    2. The jobsite board will contain 5 aruco markers, in a single row, to be read from left to right, oriented with the top of the marker closest to the sky.
    3. The commands your rover will need to support are:
      1. [Read and Store Markers] Read Aruco markers in front of the rover and display the identifier to an operator, and remember the identifier for later
      2. Any command listed from previous sections
  4. Travel to your worksite
    1. A GNSS co-ordinate will be provided, and may require information from the aruco markers at the job assignment board.
    2. Your worksite is off-roads and may have challenging terrain and obstacles
    3. The commands your rover will need to support are:
      1. [Retrieve Markers] Return the previously recorded aruco marker IDs from the most recent [Read and Store Markers] call
      2. Any command listed from previous sections
  5. Complete your Rover Operational Check
    1. Your rover must complete a self-inspection to check that it is able to handle material at the worksite using its arm and end-effector.
      1. All coordinates are measured in meters relative to the installed indicator package.
      2. +x is forward driving direction, +y is right and +z is up.
    2. The operations your rover will need to complete are:
      1. [EFF Max Height] Raise your end effector to its maximum height above the ground
      2. [EFF Min Height] Lower your end effector to its minimum height above the ground
      3. [EFF Position] Position the end effector horizontally at a specified height above the ground and distance from the front of the rover’s body (not wheel or chassis).
      4. [Store Home] Store your arm and end effector to a defined home position
      5. [EFF Open] Open end effector to a width of at least N centimeters, where N will be at most 10cm
      6. [EFF Close] Close your end-effector’s gripping mechanism completely
      7. During the check, you will be asked to record
        1. [EFF Report] End Effector’s current position relative position to the indicator package
  6. Place Explosives
    1. Your rover will be asked to collect a piece of TNT from a location specified with GNSS co-ordinates and place them at a designated location, where both locations may require information from the job assignment aruco markers.
    2. The rover will need to support the following additional commands, in addition to those listed previously
      1. [EFF Pickup] Pick up a thing from the specified location on the ground, relative to two aruco markers as shown in a diagram to be provided
      2. [EFF Squeeze] Close your end effector around an object, handle, or lever
      3. [EFF Set Down] Put down a thing at a specified location on or above the ground, relative to the rover’s position reference
  7. Detonate the Explosive
    1. To detonate the explosive, your rover must travel to the Detonation Station at a provided GNSS co-ordinate and press the detonate button.
      1. A drawing of the detonation box will be provided, it will consist of a flat face with a button, and four aruco markers in fixed positions relative to the button. The face, button, and aruco markers will be roughly perpendicular to the ground
    2. The rover will need to support the following additional commands, in addition to those listed previously
      1. [EFF Press Marked Button] Push the button located relative to Aruco markers #N and #M according to the supplied drawing

Judge’s Commentary