Feisty Fires Challenge

Every year, thousands of wildfires ignite worldwide burning countless acres of land and damaging homes. New technologies and partnerships have helped firefighters conquer these blazes, but it’s not without danger as conditions can unexpectedly change.

In this challenge, students will team up to create an autonomous program for a robot drivetrain to showcases a robot's ability to navigate an area and identify active wildfires.

Activity Description

Teams must program their robot to autonomously navigate the play area and locate the forest areas currently in danger (marked by red tape). Once located, the robot should stop and raise it's signal flag, powered by a servo, before continuing on.

Safe and Danger Zones will be randomized once all robots are checked in for the round. Points are awarded for accuracy and time!

Materials

• Boxes, such as the Orange Storage Tote, to serve as Tree Groves (QTY 6)

• Tape (colors can be swapped based on availability)

  • White or Black

  • Red

  • Green

• A4 Paper (8x11 paper) for the Brush Zones

• Tape Measure

• Timing Device

Robot Drivetrain:

Recommended REV Robotics Kit options:

• and or

Feisty Fires is played on a 3m x 2m field that can be adjusted to accommodate space limitations. The layout provided is one example of how zones may be oriented and marked.

The outside perimeter of the field should be marked with tape, or another material.

• Tree Groves are formed using an Orange Tote or similar sized box that creates an obstacle the robot must navigate around.

• Brush Zones are flat areas, marked by paper that robots must navigate around without a physical barrier that prevents entry into the zone.

• Guiding Lines are marked using tape and do not change after set up. These lines are intended to allow the use of color sensors for line following. The use of white or black tape is recommended depending on the color of the play area flooring.

• The robot must run autonomously after being started.

• The robot must include at least one color sensor. Additional sensors are allowed.

• The robot must fit within a 408mm x 408mm x 408mm space and may not extend past this space.

• The robot must include a servo controlled flag that raises upon correct identification of a Danger Zone. The flag must be clearly visible (recommended 50mm x 50mm size)

• Robots must remain within the designated play area.

• Robots may not enter, push, move or otherwise displace the Zones.

• Only one robot is permitted in the play area at a time.

• Teams will have 5 minutes to prepare, run their robot, and attempt the challenge.

• The robot must start in the marked “Robot Launch Zone”.

• The robot is considered “inside” the launch zone so long as some part of the robot is extended into the area

• Robots may only be handled within the launch zone. Touching a robot outside of this area will result in a penalty.

• Additional points will be rewarded for robots that return to the starting area after identifying a set number of targets (see point breakdown).

• Before final randomization is completed, teams may be given time to check their sensor's ability to see the colors on the field and make reasonable adjustments.

• Once all robots are checked in and impounded, no more changes to robots or code may be made for the round. Final randomization for the round will then be completed.

• Danger Zones will be marked in red tape. Safe Zones in green.

  • There may be 3-4 Danger Zones per round

• Similar to Tree Groves, the Brush Zones will be randomized after check in ends.

• Brush Zones will have one side marked safe and one marked as danger

• Robots may not drive through the Brush Zones in an attempt to read both markers at once. Doing so will result in an incorrect identification being marked along with a penalty.

Randomization should be done after all robots are checked in and no longer accessible to teams.

After setting up the field and randomizing, teams will take turns one at a time to test their robots.

1. Once on deck, a 5 minute time limit will be started. Teams may use this time to make quick preparations.

2. Teams will notify the judge when ready to begin the scoring attempt. On “Go” the timer will begin for the robot's run to complete the course. Time continues until the 3 minutes are up.

3. Robots will navigate the play area to find the designated Danger Zones.

   1. Robots may return to the Launch Zone after exiting to be repositioned and launched again.

While a team is attempting the challenge a judge will record the following:

• Total number of Danger Zones identified - Tree Groves and Brush

• Final time for the run attempt

• Optional bonuses

• Penalties that occur

(Target Score + Time Score + Bonuses) - Penalty Points = _____________

While this activity is intended to focus on autonomous program, it can be expanded to involve a mechanical aspect.

Students may design a small mechanism to "put out" identified fires by doing things like:

• Placing an item representing "water"

• Removing an item representing "fire"

• Launching a game piece into an open bin/box for the Tree Groves

• Completing a simple motion of touching the correct Zones instead of raising a flag

There are many new techologies that have been created to aid with both identifying wildfires and stopping their spread. This includes the use of firefighting robots of various forms!

Alongside programming their robot, students may be assigned a research project to explore one of these technologies or to create their own idea for a solution. Sharing their findings may come in the form of a short paper, presentation, or tri-fold style poster, as a few examples. This may help students to make real world connects and inspire them to think about what's next beyond their programming.