Lunacy - 2009 Game

Lunacy

The Lunacy Logo

Lunacy

The Lunacy Logo
Click to Close.

In honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission, 2009 FIRST Lunacy incorporates many lunar-like features and naming conventions. Robots will be equipped with slippery wheels and payload trailers. Two alliances of three teams each will vie during a two minute, fifteen second match to pick up and score as many “moon rocks” as possible in the opposing alliances’ trailers.

Consistent with games in previous years, the first fifteen seconds of every match constitute an “autonomous” period of control, in which robots are run using only pre-programmed instructions. The remaining two minutes require human control of the robots.

One of the most striking features of FIRST Lunacy is the playing surface, designed to mimic the poor traction available in low friction, lunar gravity.

One of the most striking features of FIRST Lunacy is the playing surface, designed to mimic the poor traction available in low friction, lunar gravity. In 2009, the game is played on a special 54’ x 27’ slick surface, with an additional requirement that all robots must use special low traction “rover wheels” to enhance the slippery feel of driving on the moon’s surface. To score, robots place 9” Orbit balls, designated as Moon Rocks, Empty Cells and Super Cells, in the payload trailers towed about the playing field by robots of the opposite alliance.

Each regular Moon Rock placed or thrown into an opposing robot’s trailer, by either a robot or a human “payload specialist” strapped into a special station outside the playing field, nets the alliance two points. Robots may also return Empty Cells to “Fueling Stations” located in the corner edges of the field. Empty Cells can be exchanged with a human player for special Super Cells. These Super Cells may also be tossed or placed into trailers pulled by the opposing robot alliance, but when scored, give their alliance fifteen points instead of just two! Each alliance only gets four Super Cells however, and they can only be played in the last twenty seconds of a match.

More information on Lunacy and a special FIRST animation of the game, please visit http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/2009_frcwebcasts.php.