September 26, 2011
The Trinity College Fire-Fighting and RoboWaiterContests will be held on the Trinity College campus in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, from Friday 30 March 2012 through Sunday 1 April 2012. The 2012 rules were posted today on this site.
Changes to the firefighting contest include: requirement that High-School and Senior Division robots operate in Uneven Floor Mode, color-coding and placement of start buttons and start microphones, new standard sound activation devices, robot tolerance to flash photography, changes to Sound Activation and Candle Location multipliers, water tank size limits, and changes in furniture arrangements in the Expert Division.
Changes to RoboWaiter include: Cleanup Option that encourages robots to pick up dirty plates and take them to the sink (thanks to K. Nisley for this idea), new standard sound activation frequencies and devices, and a change to the Return Trip multiplier.
Finally, we replace the Poster Competition by a new Technical Presentation Competition (TPC), based on guidelines recently adopted by the National Science Foundation. We thank NSF staffmember David Pietrocola for his efforts in preparing the TPC rules. We also thank Ed Nisley for editing the Rules.
We are eager to receive your feedback about the rules. Please email your comments to ed.08.nisley@pobox.com with copy to david.ahlgren@trincoll.edu.
Good luck!
TCFFHRC and RoboWaiter Staff
