RoboCupSoccer - Nanogram Competition
Contest Facilities
Micro-robots in the competition must operate on a contest-specified field of play, beneath an optical microscope. Teams will be allowed to connect a camera to the microscope for providing visual feedback to off-board control systems and will be allowed to connect an electrical signal to the field of play for providing power and instructions to the micro-robotic devices.
The optics used at the competition will consist of a binocular zoom microscope with a 4 mm diameter field of view, at a working distance of 8 cm. The two ocular ports on the scope will have inner diameters of 23 mm. One of these ports will be used to mount a camera for timing, recording, and displaying the competition. The other may be used by the teams to capture video for closed-loop control. Teams can mount their camera directly to the ocular port or can mount to a 110 mm C-mount replacement-type video relay lens that will be made available at the competition.
Any camera mounted by a competing team must not interfere with the competition camera. The competition camera will be 50 mm square by 40 mm deep and will be mounted on a relay lens identical to the one described above. The maximum center-to-center separation of the two oculars on the microscope is 66 mm.
Two relay lenses allow attachment of standard C-mount cameras to the microscope. The team camera mounts to the right relay lens or ocular port, and must not interfere with the competition camera, shown on the left.
The field of play will be a 2.5 mm square section of a silicon microchip, on which electrodes are provided from which micro-robots can scavenge power and read instructions. The electrodes are insulated with approximately 750 nanometers of silicon nitride.
A schematic of the current prototype of the field of play. The inter-electrode gap in the final design will be between 1.5 and 2 microns, and the electrode pitch will be between 20 and 40 microns. The width of the field in the final design will be between 1.5 and 2 millimeters.
Boundaries on the field of play will be marked with a thick film of photoresist, preventing the micro-robots from crossing. The boundaries include the outer boundary of the field of play, which is a 2.5 millimeter by 2.5 millimeter square, and two goal lines 500 micrometers away from opposing ends of the field. The goal lines extend 800 micrometers from each side of the field, leaving a 900 micrometer wide goal opening in the center. All boundary lines will be 10 micrometers wide.
The microchip containing the field of play will be packaged without a lid and connected to a printed circuit board, on which a female BNC jack will be available for connecting power and input signals to the electrodes.
The electrical signals that may be applied to the electrodes on the field of play are limited by the breakdown voltage of the electrode insulation. This limit is expected to fall between 200 V and 250 V. In addition, the electrical signals will be current-limited (fused) at 10 mA for safety.
The printed circuit board that connects the field of play to the control electronics. The current prototype of the board measures 89 x 68 mm, but these dimensions may change in the final version. A switchboard on the right allows selection amongst sixteen different playing fields on each silicon die.
The microscope and field of play will be housed within an enclosed dry environment, where ambient humidity can be controlled by a constant flow of nitrogen.
A humidity-controlled probe station with a microscope and metal platen will be made available for loading micro-robots onto the field of play. General-purpose micro-probes will also be on hand.
The contest facilities will provide 120 V, 60 Hz electrical power through American standard NEMA 5-15R receptacles.