Interest in Programming Competition?
 

Is anyone interested in participating in a FIRST-only team programming competition?

See this other thread for info ... http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=25123

Reply here if you are interested.

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

Depends on when it is and the cost of the entry fee (still being disputed over at the other thread, so I don't know what you'll decide). Sounds like fun! :)

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

Sure, after I finish Autonomous.

How about one for what you run in a bot at a competition?

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

I would be interested, but like they said I need to know what the entry fee is going to be.

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

:eek: Well it is nice to know that my team just signs me up for stuff. :eek:

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

What do you think is a fair entry fee and prize?

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

This is what I would ideally want the competition to look like:

Write an autonomous program that would read in data from virtual sensors and attempt to do a certain thing. The simulator (that is written by the organizers) would feed realistic sensor data to the program. The program would respond by sending signals to the motors.

When everybody's submitted their code, NRG would make the "robots" compete in an online Flash presentation. Like in real competitions, people would be able to modigy and resubmit their code for subsequent matches. If me and the other NRG members can pull this off, I think it would be really cool.

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

This sounds like a fun thing ... but I'm not too sure about entrance fees and prizes and all. Maybe if it started out as a friendly competition with name recognition and a virtual pat on the back the reward more participation would be obtained. I assume the simulator would be available to teams so they could test their code? (How about the source? Would this be developed independently ... or is community involvement being sought).

Eithe way, all I can say is now is too soon! Far too much going on to give it any serious thought (in school alone ... but also I believe there's some sort of robot competition approaching? ;))

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

Point taken well, but if something is to be ready when Nationals are over, I think it would be best to plan ahead.

1. Yes, the simulator would be available to teams ahead of time.
2. Who is writing the simulator? I don't know. Maybe I'll make it a sourceforge project.

And, I think the visual simulator will be a Java/C++ hybrid, not Flash.

OR - the simulator could be a Direct3d application that would download real time data from NRG's server.

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

There's an idea. DirectX covers video, audio, multi-player, and probably some other things. But realtime may be a little excesive (Maybe not- you may just stream position data and sound)

If you go DirectX, can we send virtual models of our bots with an INI describing motor data?

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

I must say that using DirectX is one of the best ideas i have seen posted on this fourm. Not that i am saying that i would not be interested if you didn't use it cuz i still would be. (Even though my team said i would participate before i even knew about it) I think that this is a very creative way of fundraising and depending on just what the fee is I would be very interested. :D

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

That is a great idea for motors being describing in an INI. Virtual models would be possible if someone can write a model loader in Visual Basic for DirectX 9.0. I've begun writing the simulator, I'll probably have incremental downloads accessible at the RoboCoder (any ideas for a better name?) site:
http://nrg.chaosnet.org/coder

I would have to precompute each match's results at our computers. Then I would make the simulator download the latest match and play it so that each robot followed the path I precomputed. Then after the match, you could resubmit code to improve. I would then precompute the next match's results, and the cycle continues.

I'm trying to figure out a way to spread the word, how would I go about doing this?

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

If you check MSDN and search for DirectX, there should be some SDKs on it. I downloaded v7, but I don't claim to understand it. I would recomend starting a thread to create the file standard. (.Bot for data? :))

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

Hrm... it seems like the project might be getting a bit complicated. I don't know, but is there necessarily a need for fancy graphics, or even to "describe" a motor? I guess it all comes down to what you want the competition to be ... and so I think you need to first say that, so everyone is on the same page. What sort of challenge is it? Are we competing against other "robots" to get somewhere first, or is it solo (either timed or otherwise scored)? Does everyone get the same virtual "robot", or can it be modified (if so, I'd remember to keep the focus on programming). I was under the impression it would suffice to model the robot as either a point or other simple geometric object, and that there wouldn't be a need to display it. Perhaps I'm wrong, but what is the compelling reason to have graphics and other complications? Not that I'm complaining: if you can get it all to work, that would be great ... but I'm just trying to think of how manageable it is to code the base quickly enough with less room for bugs so that the competition is more viable. (And not everyone necessarily has DirectX or even windows ... but that's something else to think about.)

Re: Interest in Programming Competition?
 

*intriguing* I'll bet our team would be interested.