Welcome to the official website of the 2015 Sonoma County Robotics Challenge! Here you’ll find event general information and results from the competition.
2015 Sonoma County Robotics Challenge
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Elsie Allen High School
599 Bellevue Avenue, Santa Rosa
Results | Results of the 2015 Robotics Challenge
Official Rules
Capture the Flag | Capture the Flag Rules (pdf)
—Additional information | Capture the Flag FAQ (pdf)
The objective of this event is to compete against another robot to locate and capture a flag within a one-minute time period.
Drag Racing | Drag Racing Rules (pdf)
The objective of this contest is to race your robot on a track that is 16 feet long and beat your opponent to the finish line. This year’s drag racing competition is open to grade 4-5 students only.
Free Form | Free Form Rules (pdf)
This year’s Free Form event challenges teams to explore the theme of “Rube Goldberg” with bonus points added for creating a routine or story on this theme. Entries will be judged on the robot’s ability to follow action scripts, difficulty of tasks, and adherence to the theme. Participants may choose to enter the Beginning or Advanced competition categories in this event.
Off Road Racing | Off Road Racing Rules (pdf)
Off Road Racing involves a 16-foot long course with blocks of wood placed at different intervals. The object of this event is to overcome the barriers, stay on track, and finish with the best time.
Sumo | Sumo Rules (pdf)
Robot sumo wrestling engages two robot contestants in trying to push each other out of a circular ring. The first robot to touch the floor outside of the ring loses. The last robot remaining in the ring wins. NXT and RCX robots no larger than eight inches square can compete for the top award.
Programming Challenge | Programming Rules (pdf)
This challenge involves finding and fixing bugs in a Lego NXT-G program, then loading the program onto a provided robot so that it completes a Sort the Bricks activity.
Construction & Design Museum | Grades 1-6 | Display Rules (pdf)
Students in grades 1-6 are invited to display their Lego creations in the Construction and Design Museum, which is focused on the theme of Move It! To participate, students should build a Lego machine that transports objects and/or people at least six inches.
Tools & Materials
Teams should have these tools and materials with them at the event:
- Garage. A garage serves as a container for your robot, protecting it from accidents that can happen in the hustle and bustle of a tournament.
- Printout of your programs to show the judges
- Backup of your programs on CD or flash drive
- Extra batteries (AA or battery pack) and/or NXT/EV3 battery charger
- Extra LEGO pieces
- Practice course, if one was built
- Infrared programming tower and/or USB connection cable from the kit
- Any other hand tools that the team may need
- Emergency contact numbers for team members
- Note paper and writing utensils
- Camera
- Trinkets to share with other teams (buttons, stickers, etc.)
- Pit decorations
- Lunch or lunch money
- Student participation forms (from Registration Packet)
Awards
Golden Propeller Head: A trophy is given to the team that best represents the spirit of the games by demonstrating excellence in teamwork, mechanical design, programming, and performance. The trophy is kept at their school until the following year’s competition, when it is handed off to the new team. The team’s name is engraved into a plaque on the side of the trophy.
Grand Gear Head Award for Mechanical Design: Awarded to the team whose robot best demonstrates solid mechanical design and function.
Genius Programmer Award: Awarded to the team that demonstrates the best use of robot programming.
Team Spirit Award: This award goes to the team that most enthusiastically demonstrates a commitment to getting others to see how accessible, fun, and rewarding science and technology can be, especially when you’re part of a great team. Displays chronicling your team’s outreach efforts are encouraged.
Best Overall Robot Performance Award: If your robot is performing ahead of the pack and the high scores are racking up, you are destined to receive this award.
Against All Odds Award: If you walked to the tournament in the rain, barefoot, through a jungle of angry robot-hating gorillas, this award may be for you! The award goes to the team that has come from the back of the pack to demonstrate grace under pressure, while improvising and adapting to overcome all obstacles that have been thrown their way.
Contacts
