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The Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Competition, that requires teams to invent an autonomous robot, to perform in their arenas. These robots must respond to a fire alarm, search the arena to discover the "fire", which is represented by a lit candle, and extinguish it in the shortest amount of time. The robot must also perform other tasks depending on level, and if the team wants to achieve extra points on levels where it is optional.

Our goal was to try to build a robot that can complete all 3 levels. After completing the basics of level 1, in level 2 the robot has to deal with a few additional parts to the arena, and more candles. In level 3, the robot has to deal with an arena slightly bigger than 2 arenas in the previous levels, and to find and rescue a baby in the arena.

However since covid and other things have slightly derailed those plans, we are going to build a smaller arena to simulate certain areas of this arena. Essentially a proof of concept thing. But we are leaving the rest of the rules the same on here so you can see what we aspired to do.

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Rules

Each level can result in different rules. But there are some overall rules that apply to all levels. Firstly the robots are allowed to have a total of six runs throughout all of the levels. The robot cannot enter the next level, until it completes a successful run of the previous level. The goal for all of the teams is to complete as many levels as possible, and achieve the lowest possible score. It is important to remember that in this competition, it is similar to golf in the fact that you want the lowest score.

In order to compete, the robot, has to get past inspection. To pass, it must fit into the overall size, which is 31 x 31 cm, with a height of 27 cm. The extinguisher capacity must be met. The robot must have a handle, with the control panel on it, and the panel must follow specifications. The robot also must respond to a sound signal of 3.8 kHz to start each trial.

There are a number of other rules that can be looked up on the competition website, with a link available on our resource page.

Level 1

In level 1, you have a time limit of 3 minutes, and you only have to find one candle to extinguish. Their is only one arena configuration the robot can be placed in. You will have to deal with the dog obstacle that will be somewhere in the arena, but other than that you have to follow the overall rules, some of which are mentioned above, others you will have to go to the competition rules.

Level 2

In level 2, there is a time limit of 4 minutes. Your robot will be put randomly into one of four different arena configurations. You have to put out multiple candles in this arena, and the obstacles you can encounter are the dog, a 1 cm thick rug, and wall decorations. These wall decorations can be pictures, tapestries, and mirrors. They will hang from the walls of the arena, and they won't emerge more than 1 cm from the wall. Another factor is that the mirror will not appear in any room a candle is in.

Level 3

For level 3, there is a 5 minute time limit, but the scoring in this is different that the other levels, and you have additional challenges. The arena will be two randomly chosen arena 2 layouts, designated arenas A and B. They are connected by a 1 meter hallway. The robot has to find and rescue a baby in their cradle and to put out all active flames within the arena.

The baby must be rescued before extinguishing the candles, and once picked up, the robot has to return the baby to the start area. One of these candles will be in Arena B and will be lit at the start. The other candles will be in Arena A.

In terms of obstacles, robots can encounter the dog, furniture, rugs, and mirrors. There will be rectangular solid gray surfaces, and cradles without LEDs and patterns.

For the hallway, there are two options. One is a regular flat hallway, or a ramped version that has a maximum pitch of 15 degrees. This can be put in for a reduction in points.