Robot Simulator is a team building game with specific roles and rules for communication. The objective of Robot Simulator is to complete the obstacle course as fast as possible without hitting obstacles or going out of bounds. Each team consists of 5 roles, each corresponding to a subsystem of an autonomous robot: The Robot, Mapper, Localizer, Perception, and The Planner. This game sees teams work together, have fun, and solve silly problems all while directly experiencing some of the challenges present in developing autonomous robots .
Roles:
The Robot: This player will be blindfolded and be given instruction via walkie talkie on how to proceed through the obstacle course by The Planner.
Mapper: This player will get to walk the course ahead of time and draw a map for The Planner and Localizer to use. This player may watch from the play area but must not communicate with The Robot in any way.
Localizer: This player is stationed in the control room and watches the perception stream. They may indicate to The Planner the current location of the robot by pointing on the map.
Perception: This player is stationed in the control room and watches the perception stream. They may communicate with The Planner by telling what objects are nearby and their position relative to The Robot (ex. “Table detected, front right”).
The Planner: This player is stationed in the control room and must integrate all of the information from perception and localization. They are not allowed to look at the perception stream. They must give commands to the robot via walkie talkie. The planner is only allowed to look at the map. The planner may only give motion instructions to The Robot (ex. “turn 20 degrees to the left and then take 3 steps forward”)
Rules:
Before play begins the mapper has 3 minutes to walk the course and draw a map to be used by their team. No other player should see the course prior to play.
The Robots must be blindfolded and moved to the line and players must be in their places before play may begin.
The control room should be separated from the course such that The Robot can’t hear perception or any other players.
Players must obey the communication rules of their role at all times.
A stopwatch is started for each robot when play begins.
If a robot goes outside of the driveable area or hits an obstacle they will be stopped by the referee and penalized.
If a team member is communicating in a way not described in the roles above they will first be warned and then earn a penalty for each violation.
When The Robot reaches the front door the clock stops for that robot.
The winner of each round is decided by who has the lowest combined time (elapsed + penalties).