Game Design Challenge
Each FIELD for SABOTAGE is a 26’ 10” by 52’ 5” carpeted area and is populated with a SAFE, CATWALKS, DROPBOXES. and COMBINATION LOCKS.
The SAFE is a 118.5” wide, 118.5” deep, and 82.08” tall structure located in the center of the field. The SAFE has a total of twenty-seven SCORING PEGS, forming a 3x3x3 matrix. 3 PEGS are located on each corner of the SAFE, 12 are located on the ends of 3 plus-shaped bars inside of the SAFE, and 3 face upright at the center of each level of the SAFE. The levels are 13”, 41”, and 69” above the ground, and are attached to each other and the SAFE with chains. There are 3 LED lights on top of the SAFE, each of which lights up Red or Blue to indicate the state of the SAFE’s center column during endgame. They are all off when the field is match-ready, Yellow when the field is safe for volunteers, and Green when the field is safe for drive teams.
One Red and one Blue DROPBOX, used by the HUMAN PLAYERS to transfer DOSSIERS to the field, are located on their respective ALLIANCE WALLS.
Each CATWALK is 180” long, 32” tall, and 54” wide, with a 156” long and 60” wide top platform and three STAIRS which are each 8” tall and deep. On the inward-facing side of each CATWALK is five PEGS, starting 24” from the wall and spaced 28” from each other. Each catwalk has a COMBINATION LOCK on the ALLIANCE WALL at the farthest point from the DROPBOX. This COMBINATION LOCK is circular with a diameter of 30” with 8 different-colored sections.
All PEGS except for those on the innermost column of the SAFE have a small piece of vision tape on the end.
Unique Sabotage Elements
Rookie Play:
Stable pegs are provided at fixed heights on the SAFE and the CATWALKS for easy placement of scoring elements
Human player introduction of game elements allows for easy collection of scoring elements
Asymmetric Game Element:
Rectangular game element introduces decisions in robot design. Can a robot pick up the DOSSIER in both directions?
The DOSSIER offset hole further complicates scoring placement. When combined with the rectangular shape, the robot will have to accommodate different hole positions (relative to the robot) depending on how a DOSSIER it picked up.
Scoring Stability:
Layers of the SAFE are connected to each other and to the top of the structure using chains. They are not attached at the bottom. This allows for all non-corner scoring pegs to move while robots are attempting to score.
Defense is also possible by moving the safe from the alternate side when a robot is attempting to score.
Game Element Scoring/Removal Variations:
Most pegs are horizontal and allow for easy scoring element placement. The center column pegs in the SAFE are vertical. This will force robot design to deal with numerous game element placement if the center SAFE scoring is desired. The game starts with the opposing alliance’s DOSSIERS on your catwalk pegs. These DOSSIERS must be removed by your alliance or the opponent will score points. They also must be removed for your alliance to be able to score in those positions. This forces robot design to accomodate removal and adding pegs.
Vision Elements
The end of each safe scoring peg includes a vision element. The human player DROPBOX will also contain vision to aid in DOSSIER collection if required. Three opponent DOSSIERS are randomly placed on the 5 catwalk pegs. To remove these in auton a robot must detect their presence prior to removal. Scoring on your alliance’s catwalk pegs will be difficult without vision because there is no drive team visibility
End Game
Teams can choose between climbing challenges: a high 32” vertical “jump” or climbing a set of stairs. The stairs are the same size as a normal set of stairs would be for humans, so teams will need to find a way to scale them without necessarily taking them one at a time and stopping (they are too narrow for a robot to be able to stop on one). A narrow catwalk will introduce alliance communication challenges during end game. The color wheel selection allows for 6 predetermined different actions AND the human player and robot must choose the same action. This will introduce significant drive team discussions during endgame.
Autonomous
Robots are free to score on the catwalk peg (after automatically determining a peg is clear from a DOSSIER). Robots are free to remove the pre-placed opposing DOSSIER from their catwalk pegs. Robots are also allowed to retrieve DOSSIERS from the human player station. Robots are allow to score on any peg on the SAFE
Human Player Involvement
Feeding robots DOSSIERS. During endgame, the human player must select the desired color on the color wheel and this must match the selection made by the robot. This will induce alliance coordination issues as alliances decide which of the 6 actions they want to take and force them to coordinate it across multiple participants.
