Lunacy is the game for the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition

FIRST Robotics Competition

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition organized by FIRST. Each year, teams of high school students compete to build robots weighing up to , not including battery and bumpers, that can complete a task, which changes every year...

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Announced on January 3, 2009, the name and some of the features of the game honor the 40th anniversary of the first manned mission

Apollo 11

In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...

 to the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 (Latin: Luna). It is FRC's 18th game. This is the first FRC competition to use the cRIO

CompactRIO

CompactRIO is a realtime industrial controller made by National Instruments. The CompactRIO is a combination of a Real Time Controller, reconfigurable IO Modules , FPGA Module and an Ethernet expansion chassis.-Hardware:...

 Mobile Device Controller control system from National Instruments. The driver station introduced for 2009 was the Kwikbyte DS, which was replaced in 2010 by the Classmate PC

Classmate PC

The Classmate PC, formerly known as Eduwise, is Intel's entry into the market for low-cost personal computers for children in the developing world. It is in some respects similar to the One Laptop Per Child trade association's Children's Machine , which has a similar target market...

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Scoring

• Moon Rocks (Orange and Purple) — 120 available — 2 pts each
• Empty Cells (Orange and Blue) — Up to 8 — 2 pts each
• Super Cells (Green and Purple) — Up to 8 — 15 pts each

Total score for the alliance is the total number of points scored by placing Moon Rocks, Empty Cells and Super Cells in the trailers of all of the robots of the opposing alliance, less any deductions for penalties.

Field

Lunacy is played on a rectangular field that is 54' by 27'. This field is a material called 'Glasliner FRP' and is referred to as 'Regolith'. The regolith is designed so that the robots, which have special mandated wheels that they cannot modify in any way, shape or form, have reduced traction, mimicking the effect of low gravity that would be seen by a robot driving on the moon.

Alliances

There are 6 robots on the field at a time, 3 on the red alliance and 3 on the blue alliance. Each team consists of 4 players - 2 drivers, a coach and a human player. There are a total of 6 human players, 3 on each alliance since there are 3 teams per alliance. Each alliance is assigned the 2 corner positions at either end of one long side of the field, and one position in the middle of the opposite long side of the field. All human players start with 20 Moon Rocks, and the players in the middle have, in addition to the 20 Moon Rocks, 4 Empty Cells. Each team can place up to 7 of their 20 Moon Rocks into their robot before the competition begins, but each human player must retain at least 13 Moon Rocks to start.

Robots

Robots have to fit within a 38" by 28" footprint, be less than or equal to 60" tall, and weigh under or equal to 120 pounds. The robots drag trailers behind them that correspond to the color of the alliance they are on. It is not possible for a robot to have any mechanism that takes Moon Rocks out of their trailer, or prevent another robot or human player from placing balls into their trailer. Robots must have bumpers on them in order to protect from damage from the collisions that will inevitably occur.

Game Play

The goal of the game is to score as many of the game pieces in the opposing side's trailers as possible. Robots start out in front of the opposite alliances' human players. There is a 15 second autonomous period, during which robots operate according to programs that teams download to their robot, and a 2 minute Teleoperated period, where robots are driven and controlled by a human drive subteam at one end of the field. Empty cells (also worth 2 points) must be handed to a robot by the "payload specialist" at the mid-field position known as the "outpost". The robot must deliver the Empty Cell to their human player on one of the corners in order to get a Super Cell that is worth 15 points. A robot can only carry one Empty Cell at a time. Super Cells can only be put into play during the last 20 seconds of play, and only if the human player has been delivered an Empty Cell.

Shooter

These were mainly long ranged. Most shot only 1 ball at a time. Successful shooters were fairly uncommon, and often did not directly score. Instead, they shot balls to the Human Players at the corners. Self-reloading was very common amongst the shooters.

Dump Bot

These were robots that typically started out the match with their entire supply of balls for the match, and were used by driving alongside the opponents trailer, and dumping all their balls into the trailer. These were very common robot types.

Vomit Bot

These were a hybrid between the shooter and the dumper. They were often the best robots, combining the accuracy of the shooter with the massive scoring of the dumper. These robots would drive up to an opponents trailer and "vomit" a stream of balls into the trailer, (often as many as 10 or more at once). Many were self reloading, and were the rarest type of robot.

Dozer Bot

These were the most common, and often the least effective robots. They were often made by rookie teams. These robots were bulldozer-like in function, pushing the balls to the corners. Some were just boxes that towed a trailer.

Competition schedule

• Kickoff — January 3, 2009
• Shipping deadline — February 17, 2009
• Regional competitions — weekends, February 28, 2009 – April 6, 2009
• Championship — April 16, 2009 – April 18, 2009

Regionals

The following regional events were held in 2009:

• Arizona Regional - Phoenix
• BAE Systems Granite State Regional - Manchester, NH
• Bayou Regional - New Orleans
• Boilermaker Regional - West Lafayette, IN
• Boston Regional - Boston
• Buckeye Regional - Cleveland, OH
• Chesapeake Regional - Annapolis, MD
• Colorado Regional - Denver
• Connecticut Regional - Hartford, CT
• Dallas Regional - Dallas
• Finger Lakes Regional - Rochester, NY
• Florida Regional - Orlando
• Greater Kansas City Regional - Kansas City, MO
• Greater Toronto Regional - Mississauga, ON
• Hawaii Regional - Honolulu
• Israel Regional - Tel Aviv
  Tel Aviv
  Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
  
  , Israel
• Las Vegas Regional - Las Vegas
• Lone Star Regional - Houston
• Los Angeles Regional - Long Beach, CA
• Microsoft Seattle Regional - Seattle
• Midwest Regional - Chicago
• Minnesota 10000 Lakes Regional - Minneapolis
• Minnesota North Star Regional - Minneapolis
• NASA VCU Regional - Richmond, VA
• New Jersey Regional - Trenton, NJ
• New York City Regional - New York City
• Oklahoma City Regional - Oklahoma City
• Oregon Regional - Portland
• Palmetto Regional - Clemson, SC
• Peachtree Regional - Duluth, GA
• Philadelphia Regional - Philadelphia
• Pittsburgh Regional - Pittsburgh
• St. Louis Regional - St. Louis
• Sacramento Regional - Davis, CA
• San Diego Regional - San Diego
• SBPLI Long Island Regional - Hempstead, NY
• Silicon Valley Regional - San Jose, CA
• Washington DC Regional - Washington, DC
• Waterloo Regional - Waterloo, ON
• Wisconsin Regional - Milwaukee

Districts

2009 was the first year that district competitions were held; as part of FIRST in Michigan. The district events led up to the Michigan State Championship in Ypsilanti.

• Traverse City FIRST Robotics District Competition - Traverse City
• Kettering University FIRST Robotics District Competition - Flint
• Cass Tech FIRST Robotics District Competition - Detroit
• Detroit FIRST Robotics District Competition - Detroit
• Lansing FIRST Robotics District Competition - Lansing
• West Michigan FIRST Robotics District Competition - Allendale
• Troy FIRST Robotics District Competition - Troy

World Championship

The 2009 FRC World Championships were held at the Georgia Dome

Georgia Dome

The Georgia Dome is a domed stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, between downtown to the east and Vine City to the west. It is primarily the home stadium for the NFL Atlanta Falcons and the NCAA Division I FCS Georgia State Panthers football team. It is owned and operated by the...

 in Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

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Final Round

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