LUNACY™

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LUNACY™ was the challenge for the 2009 robotics season. This game was played on a special surface and slick wheels to simulate driving in one-sixth of the gravity experienced on earth to approximate the conditions on the moon. Each of six robots pulled a trailer that served as a goal for the opposing alliance. There were two alliances of three teams each. Alliances had to get special balls, or “moon rocks”, into opposing the alliance’s trailers to score points.

Official Game Summary[1]

In the 2009 game, LUNACY™, robots are designed to pick up 9” game balls and score them in trailers hitched to their opponents’ robots for points during a 2 minute and 15 second match. Additional points are awarded for scoring a special game ball, the Super Cell, in the opponents’ trailers during the last 20 seconds of the match. “LUNACY” is played on a low-friction floor, which means teams must contend with the laws of physics.

Game Play

During the autonomous period, robots began at designated areas called launch pads in front of an opposing human player. This year, robots were permitted to block and pin others to prevent progress as long as they did not entangle one another. Robots could also use cameras to track and score in other robots by using vision targets at the top of the trailers. At the sides of the playing field were outpost stations, where human players known as payload specialists threw moon rocks into moving trailers. This was also done at the refueling stations, located at the corners of the field.

During the teleoperated (manual control) period, drivers and operators guided the robots as they attempted to launch moon rocks into opposing trailers. Payload specialists also threw cells into trailers during this time. Additionally, robots could push loose cells into the refueling stations.

Outpost payload specialists could feed an empty cell into a robot, which were deliver them to the fueling station, where they were switched for super cells, which were worth 15 points. Only one super cell could be retrieved at a time, and they could only be used during the last 20 seconds of the match. Otherwise, they were treated as an empty cell.