RoboRugby*09
After may weeks of hard work, the teams of first-year
Engineering and Computer Science students finally got to see
their robots compete on 20 April. 21 robots competed in
41 matches to decide the overall winner.
| The winning team: Darragh O'Brien, Conor Moloney
and James Kilkenny Roddy, with Michael O'Connor of Siemens.
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Although defeated in their first match, the determined
McLovin team went on to win nine matches convincingly, to take
first prize in RoboRugby*09. They had started ranked
only 10th out of 21 teams, but their ingenious arms and simple
strategy proved effective in the main competition, clearing
all the balls scored against them, and often scoring some
balls in their favour also.
Second place went to Three Guys one Robot, created by
Gareth Allen, Tiarnan Coffey and Matthew MacFarlane.
This was another clever design with a
combined plate and wall to remove the balls scored against
them and prevent any further balls being scored.
This proved very successful, and the robot won its
first five matches before finally being defeated twice by
McLovin.
The picture shows the close result of the last
match, with both robots having successfully cleared their own
scoring zones, leaving the score at 0 - 0. The robots
remained locked in combat until the end of the match.
However, McLovin (with the pirate sail) had moved the red ball
onto its scoring side of the table, and this gave it victory
under the tie-break rules.
Ciaran Hurney, John Murphy and Barry O'Neill took third
place with their robot, Spilled Milk. This robot
actually beat McLovin in its first match, and went on to win
two more matches before being defeated by Three Guys and
McLovin.
In fourth place was Morpheus, created by David Chaney,
Tomas Collins and Damien Yourell. Their robot
was defeated in its first match, but fought back, winning 5 matches before being defeated by
McLovin.
The Darius Innovation award went to Botball, an ingenious
double-ended robot, designed by Conor Casey, Stephen Killian
and John O'Connor.
The Best-Looking Robot was chosen as Two Men and a Little
Skivvy, well designed and decorated by April Colley, Sean
Draper and Ruari McMahon.
Full competition results are available here.
What is RoboRugby?
RoboRugby is a game where small autonomous robots try to score points by moving
balls into the scoring areas at each end of the playing table.
A match involves 2 robots and many balls of different colour and value.
Each match lasts for 60 seconds, and the position of the balls
at the end of the match determines the score.
The robots are designed and built by first-year students,
mostly Engineering students, working in small teams.
Each robot must be built from a standard kit of parts.
The robots are controlled by an on-board computer, programmed in advance of the
competition.
There is no remote control - the team cannot intervene during a match.
The robots must rely on their programming and information from sensors to
navigate around the table, find balls and move them to the
scoring areas.
The teams initially spent 4 weeks learning how to use
various sensors and actuators, and developing the programming
skills and algorithms needed to control an autonomous robot.
During this time, they also devised strategies for the game of
RoboRugby, and selected a likely winner.
With their skills perfected and a winning strategy chosen,
each team proceeded to design and build a unique robot,
optimised for their chosen strategy. They programmed
their robot's computer to carry out this strategy, trying to
anticipate all the possibilities and devise algorithms to deal
with them.
Why RoboRugby?
Design and problem-solving are an important part of an Engineering
education and there is no substitute for learning by doing.
The RoboRugby design exercise provides an interesting and enjoyable problem, with plenty of
scope for innovation and creative thinking.
The competition and prizes provide an extra incentive, thanks to generous sponsorship from
Siemens Ireland.
RoboRugby forms the basis of a module:
EEEN 10020 - Robotics Design Project.
It is available as an elective module under the UCD
Horizons system, to students who have taken an introductory module
in Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
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