Maize Craze was the game in the inaugural year, 1992, of the 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...

. This game was played by four individual robot

Robot

A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

s trying to collect tennis balls into their starting base. An impediment to the robots was that the entire playing field was covered in a layer of corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 1-2 inches thick.

Field

The field was a 16' by 16' square piece of plywood 2.5 ft above the floor covered in a 1-2 inch thick layer of corn. The field's perimeter was rimmed with 8-inch high Plexiglas walls. The four home bases measured 20 inches square and were centered on each side of the field at its edge.

There were five posts on the field; one in each corner and one in the center. The center post was 12" tall and was capped by a 25-point tennis ball. Two diagonally opposed corner posts were 24" tall and capped by 10-point tennis balls. The remaining two posts were 36" tall and capped by 25-point tennis balls. 150 1-point tennis balls surround the center post.

25 feet above the floor was a structure to support the electrical umbilicals for the robots.

Scoring

In each match, four robots played individually to earn the highest score, starting in the four home bases. Each robot had 2 minutes to shepherd tennis balls into their home base. The robot with the highest score of balls in base at the end won. In the event of a tie, the robot that finished earlier won.

Robots

Robots were powered through 'umbilicals' hanging from the overhead beams and a 9 volt on-board "transistor radio" battery. The robots had to fit within a 38cm by 50cm by 34cm box and weigh no more than 11kg. The robots were piloted by two high school student team members.