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Tasks during FRE2008

Comment

The status and the future of the Field Robot Event has been brought in the discussion by Eldert van Henten in Wageningen during the FRE 2007.  The most important aspects have been the overall (yearly) technical progress and student education. These aspects are found to be partly conflicting: New students are learning to build robots, thus the challenge of the tasks shouldn’t be too high. On the other hand, the overall progress in technology and the increasing public perception  should lead to more challenging tasks and applications. This is also an aspect for professional teams from companies. Within this context, the importance of the costs of the robots is also a point of conflict (points « challenge).

As a consequence we have tried to take into account these aspects to define the tasks for the FRE 2008:

 

  1. Navigation
  2. Advanced Navigation
  3. "Weed" Control

Freestyle

Challenge Task

 

Tasks 1,2 and 3 are very similar as compared to the FRE 2007. This is important for student participation and continuity of the competition. The rules will be identical to 2007, the costs will be included. Each competition will have an award for 3 teams (great idea from last year !), the competitions 1+2+3 will have 3 overall winners of the competition (the winner is called “the winner of the FRE 2008”). The logic within the 3 competitions is very clear (thus the names have been slightly changed): a kind of standard navigation (“navigation”), more complex robust navigation (“advanced navigation”) and an application (“weed control”).

A lot of good ideas have been implemented in the freestyle sessions during the last years. Moreover, the application point of view has already been very strong. Thus we thought not to change it, don’t put any further restrictions on it. We would like to take out the freestyle competition for the evaluation of the overall winners. It should be a separate award, it is completely left to the jury what aspects to evaluate. The competition will have 3 winners.

In order to include more challenging tasks (without suppressing the majority of teams) the “challenge task” is introduced. It includes the navigation and plant counting in a maize field with curved rows, some weed, some slopes (uphill, downhill; up to 10 % slope / 10 cm on 1 m) and some wet regions.  The navigation and the counting of maize plants will be evaluated.  

Task 1: Navigation

The robot should cover as much distance as possible in 3 minutes time while navigating between curved rows of a maize field, making a head-land turn and returning in the adjacent row. See figure 1 for illustration. If mother nature is willing to support this task, there won’t be plants missing in the rows. This task is all about speed, accuracy and robustness of navigation and smoothness of operation.

 

 

Figure 1. Robust navigation in a maize field with curved rows.

 Assessment:

  1. The distance travelled in 3 minutes is measured. If end of field is reached within 3 minutes, the time counts. Distance and time are observed by officials.
  2. Touching the robot results in a penalty of 5m (per touch); number of touches are counted by officials.
  3. Distances and time result in a ranking of teams; points are based on ranking number; the following sequence is used: 25-20-15-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-5-5-5-…
  4. Smoothness of operation is judged by a jury.
  5. Each member of the jury gives a score between 1 and 5; between 5 and 25 points can be earned.
  6. Not participating in a task is 0 points.

 

Task 2: Advanced Navigation

The robot should cover as much distance as possible in 3 minutes time while navigating between straight rows of maize plants. The robot should be able to follow a certain pre-defined pattern over the field. See figure 2. At various places in the maize field, plants will be missing in either one or both rows over a length of maximally 1 m. A head-land of only 1.5 m will be available for turning.

Coding of the pattern of the path through the maize field is done as follows. S means Start, L means left-hand turn, R means right-hand turn, F means Finish, the number before the L or R represents the path that has to be entered after the turn. So, 2L means: enter the second path after a left-hand turn. 3R means: enter the third path after a right hand turn. The path shown in figure is coded as follows: S, 3L, 2R, 1L, 1R, 3R, 2L, 1R, F.

 

 

Figure 2. : Advanced navigation along a complex pattern in a maize field with straight rows with plants missing

 

The code of the path is made available to the competitors 1 hour before the start of the competition without having the opportunity to test it in the maize rows.

 Assessment:

  1. The distance travelled in 3 minutes is measured. If end of field is reached within 3 minutes, the time counts. Distance and time are observed by officials.
  2. Touching the robot results in a penalty of 5m (per touch); Number of touches are counted by officials.
  3. Crossing the headland boundary of 1.5 m (or 2 times the length of the robot) results in a penalty of 5m per crossing. Number of crossings are counted by officials
  4. Distances and time result in a ranking of teams; points are based on ranking number; the following sequence is used: 25-20-15-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-5-5-5-…
  5. Smoothness of operation is judged by a jury.
  6. Each member of the jury gives a score between 1 and 5; in total between 5 and 25 points can be earned.
  7. Not participating in a task is 0 points.

Task 3: ‘Weed’ Control

The robot should cover as much distance within 3 minutes time while navigating between straight rows of maize plants. In the maize field randomly distributed artificial weeds yellow golf balls have to be detected. Detection of a ‘weed’ should be demonstrated by producing a clear signal such as a flash-light or a sound. Additionally, a ‘weed-killing’ operation should be performed on the ‘weed’.

A set of 5 yellow golf balls that will be used during the event will be supplied to the competitors when they register.

 

Figure 3. ‘Weed’-control in a maize field

 Assessment:

  1. The number of correctly detected golf balls and consecutive action is counted.
  2. Weed killing action should affect golf ball; else it will not count.
  3. Continuous spraying is not allowed.
  4. Touching the robot results in a penalty of 1 detected golf ball (per touch); Number of touches are counted by officials.
  5. Correct counted golf balls result in a ranking of teams; points are based on ranking number; the following sequence is used: 25-20-15-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-5-5-5-…
  6. Smoothness of operation and quality of the weed killing action are judged by a jury.
  7. Each member of the jury gives a score between 1 and 5; in total between 5 and 25 points can be earned.
  8. Not participating in a task is 0 points.

 

 

Freestyle

Robots are invited to perform a free-style operation. Fun is important in this task but agricultural relevance is emphasized. One team member has to inform the public about the idea.

 Assessment:

  1. Assessed by jury.
  2. Ranking will be made by the jury after the performance of all teams.
  3. Points are based on ranking number; the following sequence is used: 50-40-30-24-20-18-16-14-12-10-10-10-10-…

 

Challenge Task

The robot should cover as much distance within 3 minutes time in a “special” maize field and count maize plants. The maize field consists of curved maize rows with missing plants, weed, wet regions and slopes (up to 10 % - 10 cm height difference on a length of 1 m).

 

Assessment:

  1. The distance travelled in 3 minutes is measured. If end of field is reached within 3 minutes, the time counts. Distance and time are observed by officials.
  2. The number of detected plants has to be shown after 3 minutes or if the end of field is reached.
  3. Touching the robot results in a penalty of 5 m (per touch); number of touches are counted by officials.
  4. Crossing the headland boundary of 1.5 m (or 2 times the length of the robot) results in a penalty of 5m per crossing. Number of crossings are counted by officials
  5. Distances and time result in a ranking of teams; points are based on ranking number; the following sequence is used: 25-20-15-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-5-5-5-…
  6. Number of plants result in a ranking of teams; points are based on ranking number; the following sequence is used: 25-20-15-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-5-5-5-…
  7. Smoothness of operation is judged by a jury.
  8. Each member of the jury gives a score between 1 and 5; in total between 5 and 25 points can

 

 

Presentation during Workshop on Saturday

There will be a fair with stands and posters for all robots. In a Field Robot Workshop each team will have a brief presentation of 5 minutes about their robot (strategy, hardware, software, sensor concept, etc.).  The winners of the 5 task and the 3 overall best performing teams (tasks 1-3) can extend their presentations up to 15 minutes.

 

Submitting a paper

Submitting a paper before 30 June 2008 about the construction of the robot.

Download the template for this paper.