During the month of December, I received a number of questions that I have answered individually, but now want to make the answers available to all of the teams as you may have had some of the same questions. This is the second set of questions and answers. Some of the questions are new, and others are identical to those asked in the first round, but all questions asked are being forwarded for your information. For some questions that are repeated here, I have amplified the answer with new information that has been gained since the last mailing (for example, it can now be stated with certainty that all of the drums will be black plastic).

QUESTION:

>1) Should our lift-off succeed but fail before landing, can we re-start from the failure point using the already gathered data and continue gathering data?

ANSWER:

All restarts must be from the starting area in the corner of the arena. You bring up an interesting point however, and that is what if you locate one of the drums on an initial flight-- do you have to "re-locate" that drum on your next try, or can you remember the location information from your earlier flight? We could simply add the time of all the flights taken to acquire the information incrementally, but the spirit of the mission is to gather the data as if you were really in the field at a toxic waste site, and if your aerial robot failed (i.e., landed in the middle of the site) you might not have the luxury of retrieving it.

So no team is able to benefit from the efforts of another earlier team, the location and orientation of the drums is to be different for each team (some one could "listen in" on your telemetry and get a head start on knowing the configuration of the site were we not to do this). The judges will shuffle the drums after each flight attempt to assure that no a priori information gathered during aborted runs is of use.

Assume therefore, that the orientation and location of the drums will change randomly between runs. A record of the actual locations will be kept by the judges for comparison with the data that a team gathers on any particular run.

QUESTION:

>2) Where will the disk be located on a barrel? Can it be affixed on the round part of the barrel?

ANSWER:

Yes, it will be on a barrel (drum). It will be on a relatively horizontal portion of the drum (most likely an upright end) so it won't slide off.

QUESTION:

>3) What is the diameter of each barrell top/bottom?

ANSWER:

Don't know the answer to this yet. The place that I am getting the drums from is donating them, so I will get what they offer. They will be of the 50 - 55 gallon variety in plastic (polyethelyene).

QUESTION:

>4) How high can we fly above the playing feild?

ANSWER:

For safety reasons, lets keep the vehicles under 30 feet. Vehicles perceived to be going higher than 30 feet may have their run terminated by the judges for fear that loss of control might send the craft into people or property. This restriction will be transmitted to all teams and will have the same force as an official rule in the rules package. Other restrictions may be placed upon us by Disney that are as of yet undetermined, but any restriction will generally be imposed in the interest of safety. For example, there are currently four sites that have been identified as suitable at EPCOT for the arena. Each site has its own restrictions reagarding safety of operation and the presence of the public. Which of the four sites we shall use is still being discussed by Disney with respect to their costs, safety, visibility, etc.

QUESTION:

>5) What is the planerity of playing field, is it level, is it sand, etc?

ANSWER:

Grass surface. One of the four sites mentioned above is extremely level, while the other has a gentle undulation and is slightly crowned in the center. Disney is sending me blue prints of the two sites and topography/surroundings for the one chosen will be transmitted to the teams.

QUESTION:

>7) Are there any written compendiums detailing the past contest entries, including methodology and how it failed or succeeded? A Web Site? Any personal notes?

ANSWER:

The only compendium of past entries is the AUVSI proceedings for the past two years. Here, papers describe the entries and the intended operation. The actual results are chronicled in various films, but no detailed analysis of what went wrong with different entries has been compiled. You will find that most of the previous teams are more than willing to discuss their entries with you (both prior entries and their present ones as well!).

QUESTION:

>Is the disk guaranteed to be oriented on top of a barrel? (i.e. A flat surface paralell to the ground?)

ANSWER:

Not necessarily on the flat end of a drum. It will be on a relatively horizontal portion of the drum (though most likely an upright end) so it won't slide off.

QUESTION:

>Second, When the rules say that the labels will be visible from above, does this mean from directly above, or might the label be oriented on the side of a barrel that might make it only 50% visible from directly above?

ANSWER:

No, it will be facing straight up (being pasted either on an end or side of the drum). Remember that it might be at an angle due to the angle of the drum (drum's "pitch axis"), and it may be distorted by the curvature of the side of the drum. But it won't be on the side of a drum that is facing away from verticle in its "roll axis".

QUESTION:

>Third, Would it be possible for a barrel to be totally submerged, so that only say 5 - 10% of the barrel is visible?

ANSWER:

No, at least 50 percent of a partially burried drum will be visible. In some cases 100 percent may be visible.

QUESTION:

>A1) What is the color of the drums?

ANSWER:

Black.

QUESTION:

>A2) Is the background fresh green grass (same as last year)?

ANSWER:

Yes

QUESTION:

>A3) The radioactive and biohazard labels are being placed on the top of the drums? Or might they be sticked to any position on the surface of the drums?

ANSWER:

They will be on the upper side of the drums, but the drums may be on their side or at an angle. In any case, the label will be on the most vertically visible portion of the drum.

QUESTION:

>Reason for this question is: In Figure 3 Example of Typical Drum Arrangement, the stickers can be viewed rather from the side than from the top, contrary to what is stated in the text "visible from directly above".

ANSWER:

Yes, the Figure you are referring to was meant to show a typical arrangement of the drum (standing up, on the side, or at an angle) but was not meant to indicate the label position. Follow the guidance given in the rules WORDING rather than the Figure when considering the label positions. The Figure indicates examples of drum orientation only.

QUESTION:

>B1) Re page 6 of 16 "Scoring", 5.: How accurate is "accurate mapping"? You are specifying within one meter, but relative to what?

ANSWER:

Relative to the actual (True) position of the drum. If a Drum is located at exactly x equals 3 and y equals 5, then you need to be able to identify the position to within a one meter circle of that point (so an answer of x equals 3.25 and y equals 4.75 would be acceptable).

QUESTION:

>A 55 gallon barrel has a dimension of 2 x 3 ft, so do we map the center of gravity, the position of the sticker(s), just any point within the barrel's location or the outline of each barrel ?

ANSWER:

Good question. Map based on the centroid of the visible (above-ground) shape. that means that a drum burried at a 45 degree angle would have a centroid that is very much different (relative to the drum's center of gravity) than a drum lying half buried on its side (in which case the center of gravity would correspond to the centroid of the exposed portion of the drum as viewed from above).

QUESTION:

>What coordinate format is the map presentation to be displayed as? Latitude/Longitude or UTM system (meters), or some other meter grid scheme?

ANSWER:

X - Y coordinates relative to one corner of the arena (to be specified when the arena location is selected at EPCOT) would be convenient.

QUESTION:

>Is there to be pattern edge detection overlayed onto a grid system so as showing only outlines of drums, labels, central location, and borders?

ANSWER:

Not unless you want to do this as well. Drum centroids are all that is required.

QUESTION:

>In the "official competition rules" it is written that the disks are painted Day-Glo orange. Can you specify the color/manufacturer/order# (make, number)?

ANSWER:

=========== "What is the meaning of "Day-Glo orange." ===========

The disks will be painted Day-Glo orange. Day-Glo Color Corporation (4732 St. Clair Ave., Cleveland, OH 44103) produces a fluorescent orange pigment which is made into an aerosol concentrate and packaged by the "Spray-On" Company of Cleveland, OH. Spray-On distributes the aerosol concentrate under various labels. In the United States outlets such as Home Depot, NAPA, and Target stores sell paints using the Day-Glo fluorescent pigments. Specifically, the pigment upon which the paint for the disks will be based is termed Blaze Orange by Day-Glo and is sold under the "Dupli-Color" label. Home Depot building supply stores are one outlet for this brand. The Dupli-Color Products Company (packager of the Spray-On concentrate) is located in Elk Grove Village, IL 60007. Their Blaze Orange pigment derivative is called "FS 940 Orange" by Dupli-Color and has the IPC number 2691651940.

The Day-Glo orange paint is applied as two coats over two coats of white primer. The coating of paint will not affect the ability of a magnet to pick up the disk.

QUESTION:

>With which material or which color do you mark the boundaries, e.g. chalk, white paint, ribbon, etc. ?

ANSWER:

We usually use orange "surveyors tape" to lay out the boundaries. This is mainly for the benefit of the judges so they can see if a vehicle has wandered over the line. Normally that is not a problem for powered vehicles. Blimps frequently drift out of bounds, however. If you are using GPS you should not have a problem with coming too close to the boundary. Note that the starting area will also have its dimensions outlined with tape as well. Last year (1995) we did not use surveyor's tape, but used a thick white paper tape instead. This did not work out very well because it was too easy to break when people walked across it.

Plan on orange surveyor's tape at the boundaries.

QUESTION:

>Is it allowed to use a dynamic flight strategy (which we would call "point and fly approach"), i.e. one search point ("way point") is marked in the field and then we start flying ?

ANSWER:

I am not sure what you are describing here. If you mean "can we mark a known point in the arena before hand" then the answer is no. You must use the information available to you and that is the GPS coordinates of the starting area and the dimensions of the arena. The GPS coordinates for the starting area will be supplied once it is surveyed in (several days prior to the competition), so you will need to be able to enter this information after you arrive at EPCOT (assuming that you plan to use GPS).