The Semantic Robotic Vision Challenge

A robot challenge has been announced that will test robots' abilities to recognize objects as well as their skill at understanding language.

The robot contestants will be given a list of objects located around their competition arena where they will be expected to go get them.

The robots will be required to look up the name of the objects on the internet - for example from Google image search - then find the required items.

From the website:

Integrating a mobile robot with the vision research adds another interesting layer of complexity that would not ordinarily be available in a purely computer vision competition. Semantic understanding of the objects could also be expanded to scene understanding as well.

So the objects will be located in proper context for example office items will be set up in a simulated office.

The final rules for the competition will be posted this week. Contestants are required to pass a qualifying test to get into the finals.
The final event will be held at the Twenty-Second AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence held in Vancouver July 22-26 2007.

The Semantic Robotic Vision Challenge

Australian UAV Challenge

The Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation, ARCAA, has launched a competition for students and hobbyists. The UAV Challenge - Ouback Rescue will be held in Queensland, Australia in September 2007.

The contest will have prize money up to $40,000 (US $30000) in categories of airborne delivery and search and rescue. There will also be a category for the best documentary film on how the participating team created their contest entry.

The judging for the contest will be based on the performance of the unmanned flyer through a course as well as a report and presentation of the design.

The vehicles will be limited in size to weigh no more than 100 kg (rotary) or 150kg (fixed wing) in the competition configuration.

The contest is open to high school students only from the state of Queensland but to university students or hobbyists worldwide.

more info...
ARCAA | UAV Outback Challenge 2007

Singapore Announces Robot Challenge

Singapore's Defense Science and Technology Agency, DSTA, has announced a competition to encourage scientists and engineers to design a robot for urban combat.

The objective of the TechX Challenge is "to inspire and engage the wider community of engineers and technologists, challenging them to defy conventional thinking and stretch the boundary of science and technology for defence and national security." The winner will get S$1 million (US $650,000).

The competition will be for robots to find targets in an urban setting in a limited time. The robots will be required to operate autonomously. They will need to negotiate obstacles outside and inside buildings and be able to climb stairs and take an elevator.

The robots will be tasked to go to a specified floor of a building, find the target, mark the target with a squirt gun and return to the starting point. Iif no one completes the mission within an hour there will be no prize awarded.

The contest is open to everyone. Every team manager must be a Singapore citizen but team members can be from anywhere.
Also, there will be a qualifying round of events before the final competition.

Each team must complete their application by May 2007. The first qualifying rouunds will be in May 2008 with the final competition in August 2008.

Let The Games Begin

The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robot competition kicked off the 2007 season by announcing the playing field challenge and parts kits for this year's contest.

The high school teams are given six weeks to design and build their competition robots for the first round of the competition.

According to the press release, over 32,500 students from 1300 teams will be participating this year.

Excerpts:

In this year’s game, “Rack ‘N’ Roll,” students’ robots are designed to hang inflated colored tubes on pegs configured in rows and columns on a 10-foot high center “rack” structure. Extra points are scored by robots being in their home zone and lifted more than 4” off the floor by another robot before the end of the 2 minute and 15 second match.

In 1992, the FIRST Robotics Competition began with 28 teams and a single 14 x 14 foot playing field in a New Hampshire high school gym. This season, over 1,300 teams will participate. Thirty-seven regional competitions will lead up to the 2007 FIRST Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, April 12-14.

USFIRST.org

Underwater Competition

I had the opportunity to go to the 5th Annual International ROV Competition organized by the Marine Advanced technology education Center, MATE.

The competition is for college and high school teams to perform underwater tasks with ROV's that they have designed and built themselves. The underwater action took place at the NASA Johnson Space Center neutral buoyancy pool in Houston Texas.

I was very impressed with the professionalism of the ROV designs and the teams. There were more than 40 teams competing from all over the US, Canada and a few from Hong Kong. The teams at this event got there by winning a regional contest.

The contest venue, the NASA neutral buoyancy lab, is impressive by itself. It is the giant swimming pool where astronauts train for weightless work in space. It has mock-ups of the international space station and space shuttle cargo bays under the water. The MATE group used just a small portion of the pool.

It is hard to convey the scale of the pool with pictures from a little digital camera. In the picture above you can see the contest platform at the right end of the pool where the people are standing.
Below it in the water is the space shuttle cargo bay mock-up. You can also see the reflection of the second story control room. There were operating video cameras underwater so you could watch the live action from the control rooms and display area.

The judging is not only on the ROV and performance during the tasks but the teams also have to present to technical judges. I talked to a few of the teams and found them all to be way smarter than I was at that age. They knew about their ROV but also knew about other designs. They were somewhat restricted by the rules of the contest and almost everyone I talked to told me about ways that they could make their machine go faster or lift more weight.
One group I spoke with was the Falcon Robotics Team from Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix, Arizona. I did not know at the time that they were already sort of famous. There have been articles and maybe an upcoming movie about them. The team started with a bunch of high school kids who were on the verge of dropping out of school from dis-interest, need to get a job, citizenship problems, etc, - to go on to beat MIT in a national competition. An inspirational story. At the time, I was just grateful that they took the time out to explain everything to me. Their control system was particularly impressive. Everything, including the video monitors, was mounted in a travel case such that it just popped open ready to use.


Another team I talked to briefly was from COSI Academy in Columbus, Ohio. This was a bunch of kids from different high schools who formed the team through the science museum. I was attracted to their work area by their very well constructed ROB. It was a very symmetrical, a nice green color and just looked like there was a lot of work in it. Yes, I am easily amazed. However, the real story of most of the teams is not about the ROV but about how they got there. In most cases, especially among the high school teams, the kids really drive the program. It seems that one of their toughest problems can be finding sponsors both for money and for guidance for the teams.
The amount of work and creativity that goes into these projects is not something that you could tell someone to go out and do. The teams are completely self-motivated to invent this incredible new stuff.

Robot Plumber Challenge

The Spaceward Foundation and NASA Centennial Challenge are sponsoring a US $250,000 contest for robot construction skills.

The task will be to have your robots construct a pipeline from one storage tank to another then let the fluid flow without a leak.

The robots can be cntrolled remotely except that there wll be a 20 minute delay in communications between the human boss and the robot workers. The humans will not be allowed to see the construction site except through the sensors of the robots.
These constraints on controls simulate interaction with robots on the moon. It is expected that the robots will be mostly autonomous in their construction tasks.

The exact rules of the challenge are open for public comment for the next 30 days at the Spaceward Foundation site.

So you think you have a team of worker robots that can plumb one simple pipe from here to there? Get to work... the contests will start in August 2007.

The Spaceward Foundation

Fire Fighting Robot Contest Results

The 13th Annual Trinity College Fire Fighting Robot contest was held April 8 and 9 at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. The final Prize results were posted today.

While the overall world champion trophy went to a team from Hadera, Isreal, the teams from China dominated most of the contests.

The contest is for a small robot to run through a maze representing a home and extinguish a candle, representing a fire in the house. The maze is about 8 feet square and this year included stairs.
The robots are limited in size to about 12 x 12 inches.
The robots must be completely autonomous.

The contestants are split into 6 divisions: Expert, Senior, High School Entry, High School Entry Level and Junior.

Congratulations to the teams from China for first place in the Expert, High School and Junior divisions.
China also took second and third in Junior and High School divisions.

The China wins are the big story but there obviously were tremendous efforts from many other participants.
Jump to the final results here.

[Picture is from 2005 contest.]

Welcome to the 13th Annual International Fire Fighting Robot Contest

European Land-Robot Trial, ELROB

The German Armed Forces are sponsoring a robot challenge for unmanned ground robots.
They state that it will not be a competition so much as a demonstration of skills - and who has the best skills - but it is not a competition. In other words, there are no cash prizes.

The European Land-Robot Trial 2006 (ELROB 2006) begins May 15, 2006 near Hammelburg, Germany. It will consist of 3 seperate contests and a robot exposition.

The first contest will be for long range non-urban navigation by unmanned robots. The robots will have to navigate up to a kilometer through the countryside over ditches, berms, dirt, around fences, up to 40 degree incline and they may also have to face secret obstacles that could disable the robot if they are encountered.

The second contest is for urban search - "Tactical awareness in urban environment."
The robot could run into all kinds of trouble, " Examples of obstacles include standing water, fire and smoke, boulders, narrow underpasses, construction equipment, concrete safety rails, power line towers, barbed wire fences, and cattle guards. In addition to the existing natural obstacles, the organisers might place obstacles (e.g. military equipment) on the route that may disable a vehicle if struck. The buildings may be partially collapsed. These obstacles must be detected and circumnavigated for a vehicle to successfully complete the route. To enter the houses and floors there will be stairs and ramps if necessary."

The thrid contest is called EOD/IED/UXO. Even the name sounds dangerous. It will include finding explosives:
Explosive Ordinance, Improvised Explosive Devises, Unexploded Devices. The robot will have an hour to search through cars, trucks and buildings to find as many bombs as possible. Of couse they will have to face all the obstacles. I hope they include some real bombs too, just for the excitement.

The website does not mention if this will be televised but it sounds like it would make an exciting show. Especially the part about the "might place obstacles (e.g. military equipment)" along the route.
As the race begins, the announcer reveals the obstacles, " And for this next race the secret hazard will be.... Acme rocket powered robot exterminator spay!!"


1st European Land-Robot Trial 2006

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005

You have probably already heard that The Stanford University team won the $2 million Darpa Grand Challenge this year with their VW Robot 'Stanley.'


The results of the challenge show that it does not take much to solve some problems. It is only the second year of the challenge and the results this year are dramatically different than last.
Of the 23 teams that started the race, five of them completed it. Congratualtions to them all. They are probably kicking themselves for not running it just a little faster. It would probably just take a small tweek to get most of these five teams to improve their times.

It may only take a small tweek for many of the other teams to finish the course. Almost all of the teams made it farther than ten miles. Two other teams made it more than half way.

This contest shows that it is not necessary to have a major technological breakthrough in order to accomplish some very complex tasks.
It only takes the incentive and the efforts of a motivated team.

I hope they continue the challenge. They could make the course more complicated. And I bet the robots will run much faster next year.
Eventually the ideas in the brains of these robots will be included in our cars.

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005

Kids battle robot in goldfish-catching contest

Kids battle robot in goldfish-catching contest
* NewScientist.com news service
* Will Knight

Catching goldfish might seem like child's play but, for a net-wielding robot, it is an extremely challenging task.

The goldfish-grabbing bot, known as "Poipoi", was developed by researchers at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), in central Japan. It has been entered into an annual goldfish catching competition for children, which takes place in nearby Yamatokoriyama, on 20 August.



"The city is famous for its goldfish-scooping contest," says NAIST artificial intelligence expert Masatugu Kidode, who adds that Poipoi can catch between six and 10 goldfish in 3 minutes.

Although this falls considerably short of the best human contestants – who can scoop up around 60 fish over the same time – Kidode says Poipoi represents an important step forward for robot-kind.

New Scientist Breaking News - Kids battle robot in goldfish-catching contest

This may bring fans back to the the sport of goldfish dipping after it was disgraced by a scandal in 2003. The superstar champion was caught cheating in the world championship and his team title was revoked.

Students bring robots to 'Sacred Flame' confab

Robocon 2005, Vietnam’s national robot contest, will kick off May 10 and witness the largest-ever number of students nationwide competing.

This year, 303 robot teams - double last year’s number - from 52 universities, colleges, high schools and professional secondary schools will join the robot competition, themed “Sacred flame sparking and rising”.

Robocon 2005 is co-held by Vietnam Television, the Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Science and Technology, Communist Youth Union and main sponsor Toyota Vietnam.

According to the contest rules, each university has to organize its own qualifying rounds to choose the best teams for the regional round.

Of the total 303 robot teams, 178 of the top teams will be selected at the school-level qualifying rounds. Then 32 of the 178 teams will be chosen from the regional round taking place in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. After that, the 32 finalists will compete for the top prize in HCMC June 18 to 26.

The champion will then represent Vietnam at the Asia-Pacific contest in Beijing, China at the end of this year.

According to Professor Dr. Ho Dac Tho, headmaster of Saigon Private University of Technology, Robocon has created an interesting playground for students to bring their creations to life.

To prepare for this year’s contest, many universities, including Saigon Private University of Technology, have invested tens of millions of dong to build a practicing ground for students’ robots.

Vietnam is hoping for another victory after winning the top prize in the robot contests in Japan (2002) and Korea (2004). In 2003, the country ranked third in the robot contest in Thailand.

Reported by To Tam – Translated by Quynh Nhu.

Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily

Thailand Robot Pageant Announced

MCOT to organize nationwide robot contest

BANGKOK, Apr 20 (TNA) – MCOT Public Company Limited (MCOT) is to organize a ‘Technology Street’ in June, the highlight of which will be a nationwide robot contest based on the theme of climbing the Great Wall of China.

Announcing the event today, MCOT President Mingkwan Sangsuwan said that the ‘Technology Street’ would run from 25-26 June at the IMPACT Arena in Muang Thong Thani of Nonthaburi Province on the outskirts of Bangkok, and would include exhibitions of robot technology and technological innovations from educational institutions across the Thailand.

The ABU robot contest will, meanwhile, see teams from colleges and universities competing for a trophy from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and a cash prize of Bt150,000.

The winning team will go on to compete in the 4th ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest, to be held in the Chinese capital of Beijing.

Describing the ‘Technology Street’ as an opportunity for young people to learn more about science and technology, Mr. Mingkwan said that it would also encourage Thai youths to make new technological innovations, and thus help support the development of Thailand’s industrial sector in the future.



MCOT : TNA English News :