Scoring
There were three sections to the game: the Autonomous Period, the Driver-Controlled (or Tele-Operated) Period, and the End Game. The criteria for scoring was different during each segment. [4]
- Autonomous Period
In the Autonomous Period, robots could run autonomously for thirty seconds. Infrared beacons were placed randomly on a peg in the tic-tac-toe board prior to the start of the match, but after autonomous programs have been selected. Each robot was allowed to begin with one specially-marked autonomous ring. Unscored rings were removed by referees after the end of the Autonomous Period. [1] An infrared sensor is available to aid in autonomously locating the IR beacon.
In development or moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, un-coerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defined from human resource perspective and it means a level of discretion granted to an employee in his or her work. In such cases, autonomy is known to bring some sense of job satisfaction among the employees. Autonomy is a term that is also widely used in the field of medicine. As a matter of fact, personal autonomy is greatly recognized and valued in health care.
Infrared radiation (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with longer wavelengths than those of visible light, and is therefore generally invisible to the human eye, although IR at wavelengths up to 1050 nanometers (nm)s from specially pulsed lasers can be seen by humans under certain conditions. IR wavelengths extend from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 700 nanometers, to 1 millimeter (300 GHz). Most of the thermal radiation emitted by objects near room temperature is infrared. As with all EMR, IR carries radiant energy and behaves both like a wave and like its quantum particle, the photon.
A referee or simply ref is the person of authority in a variety of sports who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on-the-fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known, in addition to referee, by a variety of other titles as well, including umpire, judge, arbiter, arbitrator, linesman, commissaire, timekeeper, touch judge or Technical Official.
| Method | Points |
|---|
| Scoring autonomous ring on the same column as the IR beacon | 50 points each |
| Scoring autonomous ring on any peg | "Ownership" of that peg |
- Driver-Controlled Period
During the two-minute Driver-Controlled Period, teams could use standard gamepad controllers, each with two joysticks, to operate their robots. [1]
A gamepad, joypad, or simply controller is a type of game controller held in two hands, where the fingers are used to provide input. They are typically the main input device for video game consoles.
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal control device in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or side-stick. It often has supplementary switches to control various aspects of the aircraft's flight.
| Method | Points |
|---|
| Scoring a ring on the center floor goal | 1 point each |
| Scoring a ring on the first level of the grid | 5 points each |
| Scoring a ring on the second level | 10 points each |
| Scoring a ring on the third level | 15 points each |
| Linear ring alignment (i.e. getting tic-tac-toe) | 30 points for each line |
| Scoring weighted ring in corner goal | 20% increase in points scored for rings |
- End Game
In FTC, the final thirty seconds of the Driver-Controlled Period are referred to as the End Game. During the Ring It Up! End Game, teams were permitted to attempt to score points for special tasks, but these tasks could not begin before the start of End Game. [1]
| Method | Points |
|---|
| Lifting alliance partner robot 1 inch off the floor tiles | 30 points; 5 points for each subsequent inch up to 24 inches |
Advancement criteria
During tournaments and championships, match wins did not necessarily take priority over other advancement criteria. As in all FTC challenges, the winner of the top judged award (the Inspire Award) ranked higher than the winner of the competition-based component (Winning Alliance Captain). [5] Winning lesser judged awards (Think Award, Connect Award, etc.) also played a part in the advancement order. The criteria for the Inspire Award are "...match performance, observations made during interviews and in the pit area, and the team’s Engineering Notebook as equal factors...". [6] Criteria for the other awards also include robot design, creativity, innovation, team performance, outreach and enthusiasm. [7]
For the Ring It Up! challenge, a new format for qualifying competitions was introduced in the United States regions for Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, and St. Louis. Shorter competitions, called "meets", were held over weekends. Meets were smaller, shorter and more frequent than normal qualifying competitions. [8] This makes the format more accessible for new teams, in addition to providing more opportunities for structured practice in the company of other local teams. They were designed for participation more similar to participation in organised sport at the high school age. [9]
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