Ladder logic

Ladder logic

Ladder logic is a programming language that represents a program by a graphical diagram based on the circuit diagrams of relay logic hardware. It is primarily used to develop software for programmable logic controllers used in industrial control applications...

 is also the name of a programming language

Ladder Logic was the game for the 1998 FIRST Robotics Competition

FIRST Robotics Competition

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition organized by FIRST. Each year, teams of high school students compete to build robots weighing up to , not including battery and bumpers, that can complete a task, which changes every year...

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Field

The playing field is a carpeted, hexagon-shaped area with an 8 ft (2 m) tall central goal. Three horizontal rail goals extend outward from the center. Each ball placed on the rail goals scores points and each ball in the center doubles the team's score. Around the perimeter of the field are three stations for human players, who work with remote controlled robots on the field to score points. At the start of each match, each team has 3 colored ball at their player station and three balls on the field, and three balls on the rails.

Robots

Each robot can weigh up to 130 lb (59 kg), and must start each match small enough to fit inside a 30" x 36" x 48" space. The robots are powered by two Skil 12 volt rechargeable batteries and use motors from Skil, Delco, and Delphi Interior and Lighting, speed controllers from Tekin, pumps from McCord Winn Textron, air cylinders and valves from Numatics, Inc., and a programmable control system supplied by FIRST

First

First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one.First or 1st may also refer to:* First , minor summit below the Schwarzhorn in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland* First , mountain in Bernese Alps in Switzerland...

. Drivers use joysticks from CH Products and switches from Honeywell to remotely control the robots via a radio link which uses RNet wireless modems from Motorola

Motorola

Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

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Scoring

In two-minute matches, the three robots and human players score points by putting rubber balls into the center goal and along the rails. The balls are color-coded to identify team ownership. Human players are not allowed onto the field, but they may hand balls to the robots or throw balls directly into the center goal. At the end of the match, each ball on the upper third of the ladder is worth three points, a ball on the middle third of the ladder is worth two points and a ball on the lower third of the ladder is worth one point. Each ball in the center goal will double a team's score. The winner of the match is the team with the highest score.

Events

The following regional events were held in 1998:
Week 1

• Houston Regional - Johnson Space Center, Houston

Week 2

• Motorola Midwest Regional - William Rainey Harper College, Chicago
• DEKA New England Regional - New Hampshire College, Manchester, NH

Week 3

• Johnson & Johnson Mid-Atlantic Regional - Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
• Great Lakes Regional - Eastern Michigan University, Detroit

The national championship was held at Epcot Center, Disney World, Orlando.