The 2009 Build Season officially got underway on January 3rd, as FIRST robotics teams from all over the nation –and world — tuned into a live broadcast from FIRSTHeadquarters in New Hampshire. After several introductory and recognition speeches, the webcast concluded with FIRST greats Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers unveiling the 2009 game: Lunacy!
In honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission, Lunacy incorporates many lunar-like features and naming conventions. Similar to previous year’s games, the game this year pits alliances of three teams against each other in a two minute fifteen second match. Also consistent with games in the past, the first fifteen seconds constitute an “autonomous” period of control, in which robots are run using only pre-programmed instructions. The remaining two minutes then, allow human control of the robots. One of the most striking features of Lunacy is the playing surface, designed to mimic the poor traction available in low friction lunar gravity. This year the game will be played on a special slick surface, as well as mandating that all robots must use special low traction “rover wheels.” To score, robots place 9” balls called “moon rocks” in circular “payload trailers” towed about the playing field by robots of the opposite alliance. Each “moon rock” placed or thrown into an opposing robot’s trailer, by either a robot or a special human player standing outside the playing field, nets the alliance two points. Robots may also return “empty cells” (balls similar to “moon rocks”), to player stations located on the edge of the field to gain access to special “super cells.” These super cells also must be placed in opposing robot’s trailers, but when scored, give their alliance fifteen points instead of just two! Each alliance only gets four super cells however, and they can only be played in the last twenty seconds of a match.
With the game now unveiled, teams now only have 6 short weeks, until February 17th, to design and build their robots. It should be exciting to see what everyone comes up with! More information on Lunacy and a special FIRST animation of the game can be found at http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/2009_frcwebcasts.php.