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FLL Mission Overview Part 9 - Coal Mining


Objective: Get the Rail Car to roll down the track. Only when the car has touched the stoppers at the end, is the team allowed to retrive the cart by hand to Base.

Point Worth: 10 points

Mission Location: South (bottom) East (right) side of the mat.

Estimated Difficulty Level: 4/10

Time Length Rating: Medium

Unique Challenge Aspects: This mission in itself is not difficult. Bump the trigger, cause the car to roll down the tracks, and then pick it up. Then why the relatively high ratings for difficulty and time? The trigger is in the corner of the table. To achieve the presicion required to bump the trigger, the robot is going running a rather slow speed, so we have rated this mission a medium time length rating. Also, to get into the corner, bump the the trigger, and get out of there without getting tangled is why we have rated the difficulty 4 out of 10.

This mission is also rather unique, due to the unusual use of human hands. This was once done before, in Ocean Odyssey, when you were required to bump the pipeline. But in this case, the human hand cannot be shaky or hasty, or they may cause the car to spill all the coal! Which is a good question... "What happens to the coal that is spilled in the case the human hand splls it in an attempt to retrive the car?"

Finally, this mission is required in order to fully complete the Power Plant Supply. Another interesting aspect is in that somehow, either by human hand or by robot, the red coal must be sorted through the black coal, in which the black coal must be sent to the Power Plant Supply. When sorting, it has to be relatively quick in order to save time, not waste time sorting.

What appears to be a simple mission actually turns out quite complex...

Richard

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