[Andrew]

An autonomous maze idea for FIRST...

Have a truly blind maze, occupying say 15'x15' in the center of the playing field. Inside the maze are cameras so that the audience could see what was going on inside the maze.

The maze is a "dungeon" (say with a two foot high ceiling) and on top of it is the part of the playing field that everyone else uses. So, you wouldn't lose valuable playing field real estate.

There are stairs or ramps or elevators to get onto the top of the maze. You could have goals, hanging bars, scoring zones, whatever up there.

The maze would have to require four or five turns to solve it, so that it could not be mapped and completed in one match. It would require multiple matches to solve it.

This would be something that teams would do at the end of the match (say with 20 seconds left) and gradually accumulate knowledge of the maze throughout the tournament. The maze would be different at every tournament. This could be accomplished by constructing the maze modularly with movable panels.

The red team entrance and the blue team entrance (just denoting side of the field, not who can enter) would have a different solution.

At the center of the maze is a blue block and a red block. If you navigate the maze, get your colored block, and return to the outside, you win the match. If you return with the other team's block, they win the match.

This would not be the only element in the competition and would be optional. Most teams would never enter the maze at all.

This would also serve to impose a "high" limit on robot design and maybe a "wide" limit as well. Ie, if you want to try the maze, you must be able to fit inside and be able to maneuver.

Significance of the maze as an autonomous challenge
You could solve the maze through preprogrammed instructions and dead reckoning over many attempts. But, it's not likely and you would lose much competition time in matches (and probably lose a lot of matches).

If you actually use sensors and localization, you might be able to have your robot "learn" the maze a lot quicker (you'd have to store the current state of the learning algorithm at the end of each attempt).

Let's say one team commits the resources to develop a successful maze solver. Once that team "cracks it" at a competition, they cannot be beaten. The only way to beat them is to block the entrance/exit to the maze. And there are two entrances/exits.

If you have the solution to the maze and you can detect and pick up the right colored block (either by knowing its position relative to the entrance or by having a color detector sensor [light sensor]), you could navigate the maze in 30-40 seconds round trip.

A team with a successful maze solver entering eliminations would change the entire complexion and strategy of the tournament in an instant. This would add drama to a tournament as teams track the progress of the "maze solvers" from match to match. You might also add an air of "espionage" as teams attempt to acquire information about the maze from each other.

Although the maze would change for the next competition (and maybe at nationals you could elevate the difficulty of the maze by adding one more turning), once a team solved it at one regional, the "technology race" would be on. Once one team has "done it," every team that wants to be competitive would have to close the gap.

No one could completely ignore autonomy and would have to decide at the beginning of the build phase whether to invest resources in sensors and programming or in the other game tasks. For instance, if you commit to a game task which requires you to be tall, you cannot enter the maze at all.

A rookie team might use the stock drive system and commit all of their resources to autonomy. If they succeed, they could be the 500 lb gorilla at Championships. The veteran team with the mondo drive system and the do-everything manipulator might dominate the early rounds. Then suddenly, the 60 lb weenie-bot solves the maze and becomes the champion.

Audience Interaction
I envision a set of cameras inside the maze with a security cam view around the periphery of the big screen that the audience can watch. The entrance cam would pick up the robot until it made it to the first turning. A couple of other cameras would be focussed on key turnings, and, of course, there would be a top down camera looking at the "trophy room" in the center.

The audience would see a robot disappear into the maze and could watch the camera to the first turning. Then, back to the regular match. If the robot gets lost from this point, the audience will be focused on the regular match and it will be no worse than if a robot tipped over, got disabled on the exterior barrier, etc.

Suddenly, the robot appears on the "last turn" cam. It makes its turn and disappears. Back to the match. Then, the robot appears in the trophy room. Does it get the right block? Now, it's racing back to the entrance. How much time is left? Now you can see the robot on the entrance cam heading back towards the field. Then, bursting out of the maze into general view for the victory.