Background:
A number of black-and-white rounds shaped rubber plugs from an assembly line fall to the ground below and must be picked up. Currently, the plugs are collected by broom or vacuum and are either discarded or must be manually sorted in order to have them be reintegrated into the supply.
Problem Statement:
Collect and sort four different sizes of plugs into separate groups so that they can be fed back into production.
Design Constraints:
- No use of the UR5 robot arm for the process due to space
- 4 different sizes of plugs: 12mm, 20mm, 25mm, 35mm
- 100 of each will be dropped into the competition area at the start
- Bad plugs or among the collection should be separated
- Bad plugs could be cut or squished
- Approximately 5% of the plugs will be bad
- Most of the plugs will fall from above at the start of the round
- Time will start once all plugs have been released
- The design can collect them as they fall or after they are on the ground
- No part of your design can be above 18” tall in the plug collection area
- Plugs must not be picked up directly by a human hand
- Brooms, vacuums, etc. are acceptable
- The sorting solution should be entirely autonomous once started
- Sorting MUST be attempted in order for your score to count
Competition Area:
- Competition area to be made up of up to two sections:
- Plug Collection Area : Four 48″x15″x24″ (LxWxH) cells placed in a 2×2 grid
- Sorting area : Can be in the plug collection area or outside it. No size constraints (within reason)
- There are horizontal obstacles surrounding the borders of each cell 12″ inches high
Scoring Criteria:
| Identifier | Objectives | Point Totals and Rules |
|---|---|---|
| A | Pick |
1 point per plug picked up. The plug must be removed completely from the competition area and brought to the sorting area. |
| B | Sort |
10 points per plug successfully sorted into the correct size group or bin. 5 points per damaged plug |
| C | Accuracy |
Lose C^2 of total points for every C% of plugs missorted e.g.: Pick up and Sort 100 plugs with 95% accuracy => 25% penalty on total score. |
| D | Speed |
Teams will have a maximum of 5 minutes to sort all 400 plugs. Any time left over after picking up is an additional 1 point per second saved, with a maximum of 100 extra points. |
| E | No Damage |
-100 points per plug that were damaged during the process or while in the device/machine. All pre-damaged plugs will be identified. A previously undamaged plug found to be damaged after a team competes would trigger this penalty. |
| F | No Jams |
10% Penalty on total points if team decides to interact with sorting machine during competition to fix/unjam machine (not including the depositing of plugs). Whether to interact with the machine or let it unjam itself is up to the team’s discretion. Teams can interact with their sorting device A maximum of 3 “unjams” will be allowed. |
Total Points = ( ΣA + ΣB + ΣD – ΣE) * ( %C + %F )
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