Professional Level: Infiltrating Batman’s Lair

Created in partnership by: IIE: The Institute of Industrial Engineers

and Alpha Pi Mu: Industrial Engineering Honor Society

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Story:
The location of Batman’s secret lair has been located by the Joker! The Joker has assembled a high tech robot to enter and infiltrate the top secret lair. Will Batman’s true identity be revealed by the Joker or will Batman once again defeat the Joker? Batman has been prepared for the day when his arch rival would locate his lair and has prepared many obstacles before anyone can enter his base. With this in mind the Joker has come prepared to disable two force fields and cross terrain before gaining access to the lair. Does the Joker have the ability to gain access to Batman’s secrets or will the joke be on him?

Description:
The course will measure 48 inches by 29 inches. The course will be painted black except the ellipse which will be painted white. The tape track will consist of 0.75 inch wide tape that is white throughout the course and black in the ellipse area. The destination numbers will be placed throughout the course and the robot must make contact with the number or traverse directly over top of the number to be awarded the destination points associated with the number. The robot will start at the entrance to the course and must systematically move through the course to each destination number and force field control box (section cut AA and BB pedestals). Section cut AA pedestal will be the first control box that the robot must encounter. A standard table tennis ball will be placed in the 0.5 inch spot-face indentation. The robot must completely knock the ball off of the pedestal to be awarded the points associated with that task and be able to continue into the rest of the course. If the ball is not knocked off of the pedestal the team is not allowed to continue or gain any further points in the course. If the team can knock the table tennis ball off of the pedestal they will be allowed to enter into the next phase of the course (destination three, four, five, and section cut pedestal BB). If the team can continue, they must then move through destinations three and four and knock a quarter completely off of section cut BB pedestal in order to disable the force field and be allowed to cross the color change elliptical area. If the team can not knock the quarter off of the pedestal they will not be allowed to continue onto the elliptical color change or destination six to be awarded points. Note, the team can still be award the destination three, four, and five points without knocking the quarter off of the pedestal. If the team is successful in knocking the quarter off the pedestal they will be allowed to cross the elliptical color change and move to destination number six (Batman’s Lair). In order for the team to be awarded the 175 points for crossing the color change the entire robot must be passed the ellipse. If the team makes it to destination six they must then play “chop-sticks” in celebration of infiltrating Batman’s lair in order to receive the last fifty points. The tune can not be played anytime earlier in the course for points, it must be played at destination number six!

HINT: To program music use the piano mode in Robolab.  If you are using RIS, look on page 24 of the user's guide to see the chart that shows the RCX tone frequencies that correspond to notes on a musical scale and the instructions on how to program a song.

You can only play one note at a time on the RCX.  If you play a recognizable rendition of the song "Chopsticks" this will be satisfactory. A recognizable tune would also relate to the number of notes and the beat that they were played.

RIS User's Guide: Page 24

Bill of Materials:

Scoring Table:

Scoring Scheme: (Double click the thumbnail below to see a larger view)

In order to receive points at each destination number the robot must make contact with some part of the number with the robot or the robot must travel directly over top of the number.

Subscript 1: The destination points can only be awarded sequentially (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). The points for destination one must be earned before the points for two can be awarded. The same trend continues throughout the course.

Subscript 2: The robot may not travel to destination number 3 (enter the rest of the course) unless the robot knocks the table tennis ball off of the pedestal due to the force field not being disabled. The table tennis ball must completely fall off of the pedestal and it does not matter where it fall off the pedestal to receive the 200 points.

Subscript 3: The robot may not travel across the color change or to destination number 6 unless the quarter is completely knocked off the pedestal due to the fact that the force field is still in tact. After the entire robot is past the color change it is considered to be inside the lair and eligible for the 175 points.

Subscript 4: The points for playing “chop-sticks” can only be awarded when the robot is at destination number 6. If it is played anytime earlier the points will not be awarded.

Drawings: (Double click the thumbnails below to see a larger view)

3-D View	3-D Solid
3-D Wireframe 2	3-D Wireframe Top
3-D Wireframe	3-D Wireframe Top 2
Front View of Course	General View of Course
Top View of Course	Tape Track Dimensions
Overall Course Dimensions	Section Cuts Dimensions 1/24/05

Photos: (Double click the thumbnails below to see a larger view)