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The Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge 2011

The 2011 SPHERES Challenge tournament has 7 stages:

  1. Application Phase
  2. Learn to program / tutorials / initial programming
  3. 2D Simulation: the game will be played in 2-dimensions. All teams will submit a player and will compete, in a full round robin simulation, against all other teams. Their score will count towards elimination later on, but no teams will be eliminated in this round.
  4. 2D Ground Competition: the top scorers from the 2D simulation will see their players compete against each other on the SPHERES ground satellites, learning directly some of the important differences between simulation and real hardware. Scores in this round will not count towards elimination, as not all teams will compete. All teams will be able  to watch the competition at MIT via webcast.
  5. 3D Simulation: all participating teams will extend their game to 3 dimensions and submit their final individual player. MIT will run a full round robin simulation. The score of this round will be combined with the score of the 2D simulation to seed all teams.
  6. 3D Semi-Finals: the top 48 teams will be required to form alliances of 3 teams per player, creating a total of 16 players. Preference will be given to the choices of higher seeds. These alliances will compete in a full round-robin simulation. The top scoring players/alliances will be invited to submit an entry for the ISS finals.
  7. ISS Finals: the top 9 players of the semi-finals will be invited to participate in the ISS finals (a total of 27 teams, as there will be 3 teams per player).  Teams may visit MIT to see the live feed, or watch via the webcast. Players will compete in a bracketed round-robin aboard the ISS and a champion will be declared.   (note: date depends on astronaut time availability)

The SPHERES Challenge 2011 approximate timeline for the tournament is graphically shown below. There may be minor revisions before the Kickoff event on September 10th, 2011.

Phase

Dates

US Deliverables

Registration

September 5 (Mon)

 

September 10 (Sat)

ZR2011 application (from teams); as announced

 

Kickoff event

2D Simulation Competition

September 11 (Sun) - October 5 (Wed)

 

October 6 (Thu) - October 7 (Fri)

 

October 13 (Thu)

2D simulation competition (Code due from all teams on Oct 5)

 

MIT will run the autonomous simulation competition (2D Scores and ranks declared on Oct 7)


Ground Demo using 9 teams’ code

3D Simulation Competition #1

October 7 (Fri) - October 28 (Fri)

 

October 29 (Fri) - October 31 (Mon)

3D simulation competition #1 (Code due from all teams on Oct 28)

 

MIT will run the autonomous simulation competition (3D Scores and ranks, 54 semi-finalists declared on Oct 31)

 

3D Simulation Competition #2

November 1 (Tues) - November 2 (Wed)

 

November 3 (Thu) - November 4 (Fri)

 

November 5 (Sat) - November 23 (Wed)

 

November 24(Thu) - November 28(Mon)

Alliance preferences submission (due from semi-finalists by Nov 2)

 

Autonomous determination of alliances (List declared on Nov 4)

 

3D simulation competition #2 (Code due from 18 alliances on Nov23)

 

MIT will run the autonomous simulation competition (3D Scores and ranks and 9 ISS finalist alliances declared)

ISS Final Competition

December 5 (Mon)

 

November 29(Tue) - December 8 (Thu)

 

December 20 (Tues)

ISS Strategy (from finalist alliances)

 

Finalists to refine ISS Code (code due from finalist alliances by Dec 8)

 

ISS Finals on the International Space Station

 

 

Teams are encouraged to form sub-teams, so that they can compete against each other and form better strategies. This also allows increased individual participation by students in large groups. The simulation competitions will take place at the end of the initial programming phase.  Using submissions from all the teams, MIT will conduct virtual tournaments, then publish the results to the website.  Teams will be able to review the competition results and replay matches in order to plan changes to their strategies for the subsequent stages.

The ground competition takes place at the MIT Flat Floor facility. In this arena the satellites can operate in 2D by floating on special air carriages that allow almost frictionless movement across the floor. The satellites move autonomously using their thrusters, just like the ones aboard the ISS. The satellites transmit the data in real-time to the MIT computers, which can display the motion of the satellites in the simulation environment, so that the students relate the hardware testing with their earlier simulation work. By watching the event live, the teams will have an opportunity to see the SPHERES satellites operating and learn differences between simulation and actual hardware. The ground competition will be transmitted via a live webcast on a fixed date to be arranged by MIT.

The ISS finals will take place in mid-December. NASA must coordinate our request for astronaut time with hundreds of other requests; therefore, the finals event will ultimately be scheduled by NASA. Our request for mid-December has already been submitted, with the goal to avoid conflicts with the end of the fall semester. TheISS competition will be broadcast live to MIT via special audio and video feeds. The event will take place at an MIT auditorium, where all the teams that can raise funds to attend will be present. The event will also be webcast. During the finals event an astronaut is the referee of the game. They will have been briefed on the game itself, and can determine which satellite is winning at any time. The satellites will move autonomously once each round starts. When the round ends the satellites will communicate to the astronaut who won, or if that is not possible to determine autonomously, the astronaut will make a determination of the winner. A champion will be determined by the end of the live ISS session.