New antweight weight allowance for AI antbots

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JaredReabow
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Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2018 7:33 pm

New antweight weight allowance for AI antbots

Post by JaredReabow »

Just as there is concessions for walking bots, I would like to propose a concession for AI driven bots.
Lets face it, it would be really cool to have a AI driven antbot, but at the moment its impossible to have an effective antbot that utilities AI for operation because of the weight limits.
There would likely have to be other restrictions eg:

The AI team be allowed to map the arena before any battles commence, they may use equipment other than the robot which will battle, such as a laptop and camera.

The AI bot be allowed to map the opponent before any battles commence*
---To be done under the supervision of both teams and the officials, neither team is allowed to make physical contact with the others bot without
---direct and clear permission, malicious failure to comply will result in a loss for the offender.

During the battle, the operator must not make any direct control inputs*
--- If the robot gets stuck then maybe we allow them to override it out of where it is stuck.
--- If the robot traps/pins the opponent, they be allowed to override it after the allowed time elapses, to let the opponent go free.

The robot must utilize at least one form of external sensing such as:
--- Micro switches, Accelerometer, Gyroscopes, ultrasonic, lidar, infrared, optical etc.

All other rules would apply, these would just be those specific to AI bots.

Now the big one:
The arena will need a slight design modification, around the perimeter of the floor of the arena, a white line 1inch thick should be placed for a black arena floor, or a black line for a white floor, this is to allow the bot to sense the perimeter, and should make the AI class more friendly for beginners who may not know how to do arena mapping as they can simply program it to avoid the perimeter.
Also optical markers such as small QR codes could be placed in 4 corners to allow for more advanced teams, but these may be provided by the team or by the arena owner.
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peterwaller
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Re: New antweight weight allowance for AI antbots

Post by peterwaller »

The problems of trying to incorporate all the requirements for an autonomous robot into the Antweight arena I believe far outweigh the number of likely entries. Besides which running a complex autonomous robot up against a spinner is a recipe for disaster. You would probably be better off going for Mini or Micro sumo classes which are designed especially for it.
Here is my attempt at a microsumo.
http://robotwars101.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2576
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Lincoln
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Location: Olney, Milton keynes

Re: New antweight weight allowance for AI antbots

Post by Lincoln »

first, this would be amazing and i would definitely be one of the first to make a AI ant.
however, there are some holes in this plan like the definition of AI. most of my robots already have gyroscopes to correct for if the motors are out of balance. as this is all done internally in the robot you could say its AI driven thus should get the increased wight. it wouldn't because it then remote controlled with that small element of intelligence. but this could start to become a blurred line.

also the wight or black line around the edge of the arena is unnecessary. simply have a time of flight optical range sensor pointing down at the edge of the robot, thus detecting the pit. and if your using some kind of external mapping then its not necessary because the laptop outside can see the edges of the arena.

and the idea that putting QR codes around is more advanced it simply not true. things like the new ST time of flight sensors and lidar would make sensing the arena and opponent pretty easy. i would say that wight would be slightly more than a normal ant but not that much, i think the biggest single reason why an AI ant has not been done is that it would be some much work and probably money only to have it be destroyed by a spinner.
Team RobotMad, home of the Smart robots, and very mean pots :)
Chris and Lincoln Barnes
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