Line Following - December 7, 2002

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Competitors Present: Drew, Gabriel, Greg, Jamie, Jona, Josh, Steve, Tom

Spectators Present: Heather, Joe, Kellman, Rob, Troy

Taking a slightly different approach to the usual line following event, our event was a triathlon. The three events were closed loop, accurate stop and contimuous line. Each robot had a chance at earning 0, 1, 2,or 3 points per event. the winner of the triathlon would be the robot with the most points. Modification between events of a robot's construction or program was illegal according to the rules, but as it happens, these things aren't striclty enforced.

Overall this was a very fun event and especially exciting because of the large number of robots present.

	Ben Hur: A line following veteran, Ben Hur is based on a horse and wagon chassis. The horse being made up of a 2-wheeled dif-drive chassis with a light sensor mounted on a boom. While the wagon is made up of the RCX and 2 non-driven wheels. The connection between the two is a pivoting turntable. This style chassis has the advantage of being able to adjust the steering of the robot without having to swing the weight of the RCX around for each adjustment. Based on the outcome of this event, you can see this is a very competative setup. A spotlight page for this robot can be found here.
	Drew: Being new to LEGO robotics, Drew decided to use his robot from the maze solving event and add the light sensor to it. This robot is a dif-drive setup and had a program written in RIS 2.0
	Greg: Having little time to get a robot built and programmed and host the event, Greg found himself making a robot that was straight out of the constructopedia. Fornuately for him it is a dif-drive and Drew's program worked fine.
	Jaime: Very similar in looks to Greg, this tracked robot was previously built for a different group's event. Another dif-drive setup with a reverse routine for when the line is lost.
	Kokomo Joe: Another dif-drive setup, Kokomo Joe was built by Tom. Kokomo Joe was one of two robots to complete the entire continuous line event (24 feet!). Tom took it slow and deliberate, but got the job done.
	LegWay: Having become a celebrity in it's own right, LegWay was more of an exhibition bot then a competitor for our event. Using 2 distance/light sensors, and being able to balance on only 2 wheels, LegWay is sure fun to watch.
	Scanner: Basically a rebuilding of Gus Janson's SteerBot, Scanner was the only robot in the event that did not use a dif-drive setup. This robot actually has rack-and-pinion steering.
	SpyBot: Being built around the Spybotics brick (built in sesnors, motors and LEDS) didn't detract from this robot's presence on the course. By necessity SpyBot is a dif-drive line follower.
	Stretch: This dif-drive robot was built around the idea of being able to adjust it's length, width and even gear ratio. The fastest robot to complete the entire continuous line event, Stretch actually went up and back twice (a total of 96 feet!). A spotlight page for this robot can be found here.
	Tilt-A-Wheel: Experimenting with a Seqway style chassis, Gabriel found the angled wheel orientation to be more stable then the vertical orientation. This dif-drive robot was the people's choice as the coolest robot of the day. A spotlight page for this robot can be found here.
	Tippy: Yet another dif-drive robot, Tippy seemed to have the most precise accurate stop of all the competitors.
	What A Drag: Built over a lunch hour at work, What A Drag took the extended light sensor boom idea to the extreme. Although it was a dif-drive robot, it did have some problems on the tight turns found in the closed loop event.

Robots that completed at least one lap in event 1 earned 1 point. Robots to actually find the stopping line in event 2 earned 1 point. All robots that started down the line in event 3 earned 1 point. The winner of each event earned 3 points and the second place robot earned 2. The chart below shows how each robot faired for each event.

The winner for event 1 had the most laps around the loop. The winner for event 2 was the robot who got to the line fastest since there were several who stopped exactly on the line. The winner of event 3 was the robot to reach the end of the line the fastest since more then 1 robot made it to the end.

Bots	Event 1 Total Laps	Event 2 Studs Away From Mark / Time	Event 3 Maximum Distance / Time	Points Earned
Ben Hur	12.25	0 / 4.56	16' 2"	7
Drew	4.5	1 / 7.44	-	2
Greg	.25	0 / 29.75	-	1
Jaime	2	0 / 13.45	8' 10"	3
Kokomo Joe	6.75	0 / 5.85	24' / 1:14.25	5
LegWay	.25	2 / 37.02	16' 3"	2
Scanner	8.5	- / -	14' 4"	2
SpyBot	3.75	- / -	18' 6"	2
Stretch	9.5	0 / 15.06	24' / 12.69	6
Tilt-A-Wheel	.25	0 / 19.50	13' 9"	2
Tippy	4.75	0 / 11.66	19' 9"	3
What A Drag	3.25	0 / 19.50	18' 1"	3
Winner: Ben Hur     People's Choice: Tilt-A-Wheel

Two trophies were given out at the end of the event. One went to Ben Hur who was the overall winner with 7 points earned. The other went to Tilt-A-Wheel who was voted the "people's Choice" with 8 votes. You can view the trophies here.

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