Rules for the 1999 Human Powered Vehicle Competition

Sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Addendum 1: Change in the Scoring Procedures

December 15, 1998

Background

In the revision of the Competition rules for 1999, a change was made in the

relative weighting of the design, sprint, and road or utility event scores,

thus requiring a change in the procedure of accumulating the scores from the

Competition's separate events. This rules addendum describes the changes and

defines the procedure for resolving any tied scores within any single event or

in the overall score.

In the past, each entered team in each event gained points equal to its place

in that event. That is, a team placing first in the design event earned one

point, that placing second earned two points, and so on. In accumulating a

team's overall score for the competition, its scores from the individual

events were simply added together. The team with the lowest total score

became the overall champion.

For the 1999 Competition, the rules for determining the overall champion have

been changed, placing additional emphasis on the Design Event. For the Single

Rider and Tandem classes, the Design event score will comprise 40% of the

total score, while the Sprint and Road events will contribute 30% each. In

the Practical Vehicle class, Design will count for 60% of the total, and the

Utility event for 40%.

In order to properly reflect the weighting of the scores, the scoring

procedures must be based on a maximum point system rather than a minimum point

system: that is, the vehicle with the most points wins.

Procedure

1. Determine the place of finish for all teams entered into the event:

a. Design event. Teams are placed according to their numerical scores. In

case of a tie, the points scored in design innovation, analysis, and safety,

shall be the first, second, and third tie breakers, respectively.

b. Sprint event. Teams are placed according to the maximum average speed of

male and female riders; in case of a tie, the speed of the female rider will

be the tie breaker.

c. Road event. Teams are placed according to the number of net laps

completed at the time that the lead vehicle crosses the finish line. "Net"

laps means that the laps counted are net of any penalties imposed by the

judges.

d. Utility event. Teams will be placed according to the time required to

complete the course as described in the Competition rules, with the fastest

net time determining the winning team. "Net" time means that any time

penalties imposed by the judge have been added to the actual course time.

2. Assign scores according to the place of finish in each event:

e. Scores will be kept separately for each vehicle class (i.e., Single Rider,

Tandem, and Practical).

f. Each competing vehicle will receive points equal to one more than the

number of entered vehicles, less its place of finish. That is,

Number of vehicles entered into class: 25

Number of vehicles competing in class: 21

Place of finish: 1

Points assigned = 25 - 1 + 1 = 25

Place of vehicle finish: 10

Points assigned = 25 - 10 + 1 = 16

Place of finish: 21

Points assigned = 25 - 21 + 1 = 5

g. Vehicles entered into the competition but not competing in the event will

receive zero points.

3. Combine the scores from the individual events in each vehicle class:

h. Single-Rider and Tandem Vehicles: Multiply the points scored from the

Design event, the Sprint event, and the Road event by 0.4, 0.3, and 0.3,

respectively, and add the results.

i. Practical Vehicles: Multiply the points scored in the Design event and

the Utility event by 0.6 and 0.4, respectively, and add the results.

j. Normalize the scores by dividing the total scores for each vehicle class

by the number of vehicles entered into that class. This will establish a

relative performance level (between 0 and 1) for each vehicle in the class.

4. Note that, in all three vehicle classes, the points scored in the Design

event shall determine the overall placement if a tie occurs in the overall

score.

5. Note that the points to be added (as indicated above) refer to the points

awarded according to the team's finish in the respective events and not to

design scores, vehicle speeds, laps finished, or any other such intermediate

scores used by the judging team to determine ranking within the event.

Comments on the change:

Please address any comments to Thomas M. Barlow, Chief Judge, ASME HPV

Competition, at barlowt@asme.org