Stack Attack was the game for the 2003

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition operated by ''FIRST''®. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work to build robots capable of competing in that year's game. Robots c ...

. Two teams of two robots compete by moving large Sterilite bins into their zones and arranging them into stacks.

Layout

At the beginning of the match, each team is given 4 bins, which they may arrange as they see fit. Each of these bins are marked with a retroreflective tape that is highly visible to the infrared sensors included in the kit of parts. In the center of the field on top of the ramp is a large stack of 29 bins.

Object

The object of this game is for each two player alliance to rack up more points than the other team. Scoring is one point for every bin in an alliance's scoring zone, multiplied by the height of their highest stack. Each robot on the top of the ramp at the end of the match adds 25 points to an alliance's score. Bins that are supported by a robot do not count towards the final score.

Gameplay

Human Player

The Human player period is 10 seconds at the start of the match where one designated person from each team may walk onto the field and pass or receive one or more of their four bins to their allied team's human player. This allowed teams to create stacks higher than the initial 4-high stacks. The human players needed to return to a pressure-sensitive pad before their robot was activated.

Autonomous

The autonomous period was 15 seconds long in Stack Attack. During the autonomous period, teams could use

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

sensors to hunt the opposing team's stacks, use the same sensors to follow white tape or use

dead reckoning In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating the current position of a moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and incorporating estimates of speed, heading (or direction or course), and elapsed time. T ...

to navigate to the center stacks.

Human-controlled

The human controlled phase began immediately after the autonomous period. During this phase, robots would attempt to amass the most bins on their side, while preventing the opposing teams from getting bins onto their scoring area and knocking down opposing stacks. Robots that were capable of stacking would use this time to begin building and protecting a stack of bins.

Strategies

Autonomous

The most successful strategy in autonomous mode was to get the robot to run through the centre stack and push as many bins as possible onto that robot's scoring end. Since it was very difficult to move bins from one end of the field to the other, once most of the centre bins landed in one end, often that team would win. Teams could also try to seek out and knock over the stacks of bins that the human players had placed at the start of the match.

Human Controlled Game

Often the main game was a chaotic period where teams would try and clear out their own zone while attempting to keep as many bins on their scoring section as possible. Robots that were capable of stacking would usually protect their stack for the entire match, then release it just as the match ended.

Events

The following regional events were held in 2003: * Arizona Regional - Phoenix, AZ * BAE Systems/Granite State Regional - Manchester, NH * Buckeye Regional - Cleveland, OH * Canadian Regional - Mississauga, ON * Central Florida Regional - Orlando, FL * Chesapeake Regional - Annapolis, MD * Great Lakes Regional - Ypsilanti, MI * Johnson & Johnson Mid-Atlantic Regional - Piscataway, NJ * Lone Star Regional - Houston, TX * Midwest Regional - Evanston, Il * NASA/VCU Regional - Richmond, VA * New York City Regional - New York City, NY * Pacific Northwest Regional - Seattle, WA * Peachtree Regional - Duluth, GA * Philadelphia Regional - Philadelphia, PA * Pittsburgh Regional - Pittsburgh, PA * St. Louis Regional - St. Charles, MO * Sacramento Regional - Sacramento, CA * SBPLI Long Island Regional - Long Island, NY * Silicon Valley Regional - San Jose, CA * Southern California Regional - Los Angeles, CA * UTC New England Regional - Hartford, CT * Western Michigan Regional - Grand Rapids, MI The championship was held at Reliant Park in Houston, TX.

References

External links

FIRST Robotics
{{FIRST 2003 in robotics FIRST Robotics Competition games