Urban Heights

Table of Contents

1. Prologue
2. Scoring Rules
3. Robot Design Rules
4. Safety Regulations
5. Specifications
6. Opportunities to Earn Points
7. Awards
8. Revisions

Prologue

You’ve been hired by the city to shape its skyline! Your mission is to deliver vital pallets of materials to designated districts. But that’s just the beginning—if you’re up for the challenge, dive into constructing multi-story marvels for even greater rewards. The city is counting on you to build its future!

Scoring Rules

1. The objective of the game, called Urban Heights, is to retrieve pallets and place them in scoring districts; creating towers of pallets provides a bonus.
2. The game is played between up to four robots.
3. Each match lasts for 150 seconds.
4. Robots will be started at the direction of match officials.
5. Each robot has 6 pallets of building materials in their zone colour, which begin positioned as shown in Arena Specifications.
6. Each robot starts in the corner starting zone.
7. At the end of the match, pallets are scored as follows:
   • Pallets placed in the outer four districts are worth 1 point.
   • Pallets placed in the middle four districts are worth 2 points.
   • Pallets placed in the centre district are worth 3 points.
8. A pallet is in a district if the vertical projection of the pallet is fully within the district, where the tape denoting the district is also included in this area.
9. Falling pallets will be scored where they come to rest.
10. At the end of the match if a robot has the highest pallet in a district, its points for that district are doubled. Pallets can only be considered for the highest pallet if:
    • The pallet is not on the floor.
    • The pallet is not supported by a robot, such that moving the robot would not significantly move the pallet.
    • The highest point of the pallet is at least 25 mm higher than the highest point of any other robot’s pallets.
11. In the event of a tie for the highest pallet in a district, neither robot’s points are doubled.
12. There is a bonus point available every match for a robot fully leaving its starting zone for the first time in the match.
13. At the end of the match, the robot with the most points wins.
14. Student Robotics reserves the right to have match officials in the arena during matches.
15. Teams may not interact with their robot after the start of a match. This includes to restart their robot should it fail to start. Doing so may result in disqualification from the match.
16. A robot will be stopped during a match when it is at risk of severely damaging itself, other robots, the arena, or otherwise poses a safety risk.

Specifications

Arena

The arena is a square, shown to scale in the diagram below. The length of the outer walls are 5.75±0.1 m.

1. All measurements on the diagram are in millimetres. Measurements of the location of items in the arena are relative to its centre.
2. The four squares in the corners of the arena outlined with the zone colours denote the robot starting zones.
3. Each robot will be assigned a corner at the start of every match to indicate its starting zone. Robots may start anywhere inside this area, facing any direction.
4. The four quadrants have the pallets initially positioned in the same way, as shown by the small coloured squares, with a robot’s pallets starting within its zone’s quadrant.
5. The nine white squares, of decreasing size, are the scoring districts. The dimensions are to the outer edge of the tape.
6. The five black squares are the locations of the high-rises, centred in the districts. The heights are defined under the High-rises section.
7. The perimeter of the arena floor is delimited by the arena wall, which has a minimum height of 220 mm.
8. All lines are marked with 48 mm tape using the colours shown in the diagram.
9. The floor of the arena is covered with a closed-loop, short pile carpet. A sample of this is provided in your kit.

Markers

Along the arena walls, on the high-rises, and on all faces of each pallet are fiducial markers that can be detected with the provided computer vision system. The identifying numbers and sizes of each of these markers are detailed in the table below.

The markers can be printed on a black-and-white printer.

Each of the arena walls have 7 markers positioned along them as detailed below. These are evenly spaced at a spacing of 718±20 mm between marker centres. All arena boundary markers are positioned with the grey border 50±10 mm above the floor.

Pallets

1. Pallets are "single wall" 130±10 mm cardboard box cubes.
2. Pallets have an 80 mm fiducial marker in the centre of each face.
3. The identifier of this marker is the same for all faces.
4. Along all edges of the pallet is coloured tape to designate the zone that it belongs to. This covers the remaining area of the faces that are outside the marker.
5. Pallets will be arranged as shown in the arena specification.
6. The identifier of each pallet in the arena is randomly chosen from the available values in the marker table and where particular pallets start may vary between matches.
7. Each pallet has a unique value within the arena.

High-rises

1. The high-rises are cuboid structures with a base 150±15 mm × 150±15 mm. The top of a high-rise has a flat top.
2. The height of the centre high-rise is 260±15 mm. The outer four high-rises have a height of 130±15 mm.
3. The high-rises will be securely attached to the floor of the arena to prevent them being moved.
4. Each high-rise has an 80 mm fiducial marker attached to each side, centred horizontally, with the grey border 15±10 mm above the floor.
5. Each high-rise has a distinct marker value. A high-rise displays its single marker on all sides.

Robot Design Rules

To ensure a fair competition, all teams must adhere to the following regulations. Violations of these rules, without an exemption, may result in penalties. These may include deductions of points or outright disqualification.

1. All robots must be safe.
2. The judge’s decision is final.
3. Robots must pass a safety inspection before they can enter a physical arena.
4. Teams must conduct themselves within the principles of good sporting conduct.
5. While accidental bumps and scrapes are inevitable, the sport is non-contact.
6. Robots must not deliberately or negligently damage the arena or anything in it.
7. Robots must fit within a 500 mm × 500 mm × 500 mm cube at the start of each match.
8. During each match, robots must fit within a 600 mm × 600 mm horizontal square at all times. The robot’s height is not restricted during the match.
9. Robots must have a spare USB slot accessible to match officials.
10. Robots must have a flag mounting that conforms to the flag mount requirements.
11. Robots must not use any remote control systems, radio transmitters or receivers.
12. Robots must not have any fiducial markers visible to other robots that may confuse other robots.

If you have questions or concerns about the rules and regulations, including applying for an exemption, please ask in Discord.

Flag Mounts

A “robot flag” is a removable identifier that will be attached to a robot throughout the match. It features the zone colour to allow spectators to easily associate a robot with its zone. Robot flags will be provided by Student Robotics. The flag assembly is shown below.

The pole is constructed from 15 mm white PVC piping. This is what will attach to your flag mount. A standard push-fit plumbing connector is recommended for this, such as the JG Speedfit PEM0415W.

To allow flags to be easily used with your robot, your flag mount must conform to the following requirements:

1. The flag mount must be securely affixed to the main chassis of the robot, and hold the flag vertical when the robot is in its typical stopped position.
2. Flags are not counted when considering the size of the robot.
3. The identifying part of the robot flag must be visible when attached to the mount.

Safety Regulations

To confirm that your robot is safe, a safety inspection will be carried out by Student Robotics prior to the start of the competition. In order to pass safety inspection, robots must:

1. Have a mass of less than 13 kg. Generally, teams should aim for their robot to be below 10 kg.
2. Have all electronics securely mounted with removable fastenings. Cable ties and screws are recommended for this. Please do not affix anything to the boards with glue or double-sided tape.
3. Provide adequate protection to the batteries they use, including protection from mechanical damage. A hard case that secures the battery is recommended for this.
   1. Only batteries provided or authorised by Student Robotics may be used.
   2. The robot may only be powered through the Student Robotics power board.
   3. Only chargers provided or authorised by Student Robotics may be used to charge the provided batteries.
4. Have a power switch, which will completely immobilise the robot. It must be accessible and obvious, without disassembling the robot in any way. It should be on the top of the robot.
5. Not have any sharp edges or points.
6. Not contain any power system that exceeds 50 V.

If you have questions or concerns about the rules and regulations, including applying for an exemption, please ask in Discord.

Opportunities to Earn Points

There are multiple activities spread across the year that you can gain league points for completing and will help you prepare for the competition. These include:

• Three Challenges, available from Kickstart
• The Virtual League, in February
• The Main League, in April

There are three challenges which teams may optionally complete during the competition year in order to earn additional league points. The challenges may be approached in any order and are worth 6 league points. Throughout the challenges your robot does not need to be fully assembled and we encourage you to complete the challenges while you construct your robot.

Submissions for each challenge should be made as a video on the web (e.g: on YouTube, Instagram, etc.) and linking this video in your Discord channel. When linking the video please use @challenges so that your submission is seen. If a team’s challenge submission is not deemed successful, the team may attempt the challenge again. Feedback will be provided about why the submission was not successful.

The challenges are specified in the challenges document.

1. After 6pm GMT on December 7^th 2024 submissions will only be accepted for two challenges per team.
2. After 6pm GMT on January 25^th 2025 submissions will only be accepted for one challenge per team.
3. After 6pm GMT on February 22^nd 2025 no more submissions will be accepted for the challenges.

The Virtual and Main Leagues each comprise several matches. At the end of a match, league points will be awarded as follows. The team with the most game points will be awarded 8 league points. The team with the second most will be awarded 6. The team with the third most will be awarded 4 points, and the team with the fewest game points will be awarded 2 points. Teams whose robot was not entered into the round, or who were disqualified from the round, will be awarded no points.

The Virtual League uses the Webots based simulator and will be livestreamed on Saturday 8^th February 2025. Code submissions for this league will close at 6pm GMT on Thursday 6^th February 2025. League points will be scaled so that the available league points in the Virtual League are between 20 and 25 percent of the total points from all leagues.

The Main League, played along with the Knockouts, will make up the in-person competition event.

Following the Main League, the accumulated league points will be used to seed the Knockouts. League points will also be used to break ties in Knockouts matches. This Knockouts will be used to determine the final 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd awards through an elimination tournament.

Awards

Main Competition Awards

Trophies awarded to the teams that place highest in the Knockouts at the end of the competition. The teams in 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place receive awards.

Excellence in Engineering Award

A trophy awarded to the team that displays the most extraordinary ingenuity in the design of their robot. It is not purely awarded for complexity of design, but rather for producing an elegant solution to the problem, and demonstrating good engineering principles.

Rookie Award

An edible prize awarded to the team, competing in Student Robotics for the first time, which places highest in the league.

Online Presence Award

An edible prize awarded to the team judged to have the best online presence throughout the year. The hashtag for the competition is #srobo2025. Teams are reminded not to post private information about their members or others.

Robot and Team Image Award

A trophy awarded to the team judged to present the image of their team, and their robot, in the most outstanding way. We will consider, for instance: theming, aesthetics of the robot, props, or team costumes.

Revisions

From time to time Student Robotics may amend the rulebook. When this happens, this document will be updated.

1. Clarified tokens supported by the robot cannot be counted as the highest pallet in a district, and that falling pallets are scored where they come to rest (enacted 2024-10-17).