2006 Research and Design Web Site Challenge:
Robotics in Lunar Exploration

The results are in for the 2006 Research and Design Web Site Challenge. As usual, we had quite a few great entries this year, and the judges faced a dfficult task in choosing the best. This years winners are listed below:

Winners - High School Division

Winners - Middle School Division

(Click here for the 2005 winners )

Motivation

Since humankind first looked up and gazed upon the moon and stars we have wondered what might be out there. In the 1950's, NASA brought us one step closer to the wonders of space when they sent the first men into orbit around the Earth. Then, in 1969, Neil Armstrong took another huge step for space exploration with the first moonwalk.

NASA has recently announced that change is on the horizon and that "NASA is plotting a new course into the cosmos. The Vision for Space Exploration calls for a return to the moon, followed by journeys of discovery to Mars and beyond." [1] This time, the astronauts will probably not be alone. "If NASA wants to build a Moon base or put human footprints on Mars, its astronauts are going to need a lot of help from robots." [2] Prominent roboticists predict that robots in the future are going to need to be robust, focused on whole-system design, mission competent and represent a virtual presence for humans back on Earth. [3]

Development of autonomous navigation and robot collaboration will also be crucial to the success, or failure, of robots involved in lunar and planetary exploration. "The coming decades offer a rich, exciting landscape of opportunities for space exploration and discovery. Within this landscape, new and breakthrough technologies are being developed that will change the way we explore our solar system and beyond." [4]

Your Challenge

One possible mission to the lunar surface could involve a search for water/ice in the Aiken Basin on the moon.

Your assignment is to:

  1. Describe the environment the robots will have to work in to accomplish this mission. Where in the basin would you look?
  2. Describe some of the key differences between the robots for this lunar mission and the MER (Spirit and Opportunity) robots that are currently exploring Mars. Why can't we use MER robots for this mission?
  3. Design a robot to try and find water in the Aiken Basin. Describe at least some of the following:
    • What the robot will look like
    • How it will move
    • How it will navigate/be controlled
    • How it will be powered
    • How it will try and find water
    • Other items you think are important
  4. Include a bibliography of the books, websites and any other sources you used while researching the previous three points.

Your report should be in the form of a web page that is hosted on your team’s research page site. Your report should include sections that address the three points of the assignment, and it must include a bibliography. Reports without a bibliography will not be reviewed. If your references are to websites, you should include the URL. Other sources may also be used (e.g., books and journals) however a complete bibliographic citation for the source must be included in your bibliography. Hint: look at the bibliographies of your sources to find possible other sources as reference.

Format

Your report can include graphics (flash, jpg, or gif files), small videos (flash, quicktime or mpg), and audio (flash or mp3). When printed, your report should not exceed six pages of text (not including bibliography or graphics) — any amount past that will be ignored by the judges. Judges will use a variety of computers and browsers — do not use anything in your web page that can only be viewed using a specific operating system or browser. If you are unsure whether or not your page is compatible, email us (support@kipr.org) with a subject line: “Web contest check” and let us know: your team number, what operating system and internet browsers you have already checked and what specifically you want us to check (e.g., does this link work? or can you see that figure? or do you hear the theme to Rocky when the page comes up?).

Judging

Your website will be frozen and teams will be locked out at 3 pm CST on 2/8/06. Websites will be judged by a committee of experts in engineering and robotics. Judging will be as follows:

  • 15% on the overall presentation of your web page (how good it looks, use of graphics, layout, etc).
  • 25% on your research and description of the Aiken Basin environment as outlined in number 1 in the "Challenge" section.
  • 10% on your analysis of the differences between the MER robots and robots used to explore the Aiken Basin as outlined in number 2 in the "Challenge" section.
  • 40% on your ideas of the kind of robot that might be used to explore the Aiken Basin as outlined in number 3 in the "Challenge" section.
  • 10% on the bibliography Ð citations are properly notated within the text and the bibliography is clear and complete.

Awards

This is a national competition divided into middle school and high school divisions. Winners will be announced on the Botball® website before the first regional tournament. The winners will be given their awards at their regional tournament award ceremony and will also be acknowledged at the National Conference on Educational Robotics.

First, second, and third place trophies will be awarded along with a number of honorable mention awards. The first place team in each division will be given a $1000 award that can be used as a travel grant to the National Conference on Educational Robotics to be held in summer of 2006 or as a partial fee waiver towards their 2007 Botball® team registration. The second place prize in each division will be a $500 award and the third place prize in each division will be a $250 award. All of these awards can be used either as a travel grant to attend the National Conference or as a partial fee waiver for their 2007 Botball® team registration. Winners of honorable mention awards will each receive two free registrations for the National Conference on Educational Robotics. Research and Design Website winners will be automatically accepted to present a paper based on their winning research at the National Conference on Educational Robotics. These papers will be included in our National Conference Proceedings.

Bibliography

[1] http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/apollo11_35th.html

[2] http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040426/pf/428888a_pf.html

[3] http://www.traclabs.com/~korten/publications/isairas_space_robotics.pdf

[4] http://technology.jpl.nasa.gov/state_of_technology/

General Guidelines:

  1. Only Botball® teams registered for the 2006 Botball® season prior to February 8, 2006 are eligible to participate.
  2. Each registered team may submit one entry.
  3. Participation in the Website R&D Challenge is voluntary, and will not affect a team’s standing in any other portion of the Botball® program.
  4. All entries must be posted on KISS Institute’s team web server by 3:00 pm CST on 2/8/06.
  5. You may start uploading files immediately.  It is the team’s responsibility to make sure their files are uploaded in time and that the website appears as intended when viewed by a browser.  Networks occasionally go down, and we expect heavy network traffic in the few days preceding 2/8, so teams are strongly encouraged to upload their files early. Teams will be able to overwrite early versions of their web site — files can be updated whenever the team desires up until the 2/8 deadline.
  6. The team websites will only be viewable by the team and by KISS Institute staff up until the 2/8 deadline.
  7. Judging will begin on 2/9.
  8. Research and Design websites will go public shortly after 2/8/06. Around that date, teams will receive an email with instructions for opting out of site publication. It is our hope to make as many sites as possible available, but teams that opt out will not have their sites made public.

Website Viewing Requirements:

  1. Websites must be viewable using IE 5 or higher and at least one of:
    • Netscape 7 or higher
    • Safari 1.0 or higher
    • Mozilla 1.0 or higher
    • Firefox 1.0 or higher

    Working with the non-IE browser during the development of the site is a good idea, because the non-IE browsers tend to be stricter about what they will accept. It is more likely that sites tested with the non-IE browsers will work in IE, than vice versa.

  2. Do not include graphics or special features that operate only with Windows or only with Mac operating systems.  Videos that use Quicktime or Real-Media viewers are fine since plugins for all operating systems are available; BMP or PICT graphics should not be used since they are operating system specific (use GIF or JPG instead).
  3. Browser plugins (e.g., Flash) are allowed, but you should include a link on the front of your website (that does not require the plugin to view) that links the viewer to a site for downloading the appropriate plugins.
  4. All pathnames in your website should follow the HTML standard format and use forward slashes “/” to separate directories.  Paths that include backslashes “" will not be viewable by many of the judges.

Website Format Requirements:

  1. Websites must include the team’s Botball® team number clearly visible on the entry screen of their website.
  2. Your website should have all of its critical information within the equivalent of six printed pages.  Judges will be instructed to judge only that far into the website, considering anything after that point as supplementary “appendix” material.  Teams are welcome to have websites as long, thorough and complete as they wish, and there is no penalty for a large website, but anything beyond the first six pages of text will not be judged. 
  3. Your website should contain a table of contents that points to the various sections of content and has a link to your bibliography.  The table of contents may be implemented any way the team desires (e.g., a list of hyperlinks at the beginning, a separate frame, drop down menus, a list at the bottom of each page, etc.) but its ease of use will affect your team’s score.

Website Bibliographic Rules:

  1. Your website must contain original content created only by the students on the website team. (These need not be the same students who build and program the robots.)
  2. Your website should be considered a research paper.  You must properly acknowledge the creators of work on which your website material is based.
  3. Material copied from other sources must be contained in quotes and immediately followed with a hyperlink, or bibliographic reference to the source material at the conclusion of the quote.
  4. Material that is substantially drawn from a single source (i.e., paraphrased) should be followed by a hyperlink, or bibliographic reference to the source material.
  5. Sources used to supply facts or ideas that are used in your content should be acknowledged through a hyperlink, or bibliographic reference to the source material.
  6. Graphics, videos and pictures not created by the website team should be immediately followed by a hyperlink, or bibliographic reference to the source of the material.
  7. All sources used in the creation of your website (including those already referenced in the text) should be included in a bibliography page on your website.
  8. The motivation section of these rules with the bibliography is an example of a correct way to do bibliographic citation.
  9. A link to your bibliography must appear on your website index.
  10. The bibliography does not count against the judging page limit (do not skimp on the bibliography).
  11. Any website not containing a bibliography or containing non-original material that is not properly attributed, will be disqualified from the contest.
  12. Please keep in mind that when it comes to judging your websites, 200 bibliographic sources are not better then 50 sources. However, 5 bibliographic sources are better then 1.
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