Artificial Intelligence and Robotics blog
Posts tagged robotics competition
International Humanoid Robot Olympic Games
Nov 8th
The Chinese have just announced that they intend to hold the first ever International Humanoid Robot Olympic Games in the city of Harbin possibly in June 2010. There are few details about the event other than what was posted in a brief article on CCTV’s website; you can read the article here.
The organizers are busy trying to find sponsors for the robot Olympics while they expect 100 Universities from 20 countries will send robots to compete. The Olympics will be exclusive to humanoid robots. The events will be a mixture of traditional Olympic sports such as track and field and more robotics related activities such as doing housework.
The organizers claim that the robot Olympics are designed to help make more intelligent robots for use at home. The Humanoid Olympic Games will be competing with the well established RobotCup competition which attracts much attention every year. Robot rescue and robot soccer are the two main events with the latter having the longest history in robotics competitions (see our previous stories “Robot soccer: Then and now!” and “RoboCup: When and why did robots start playing soccer? for more information”.)
I am curious to see if the Humanoid Olympics actually take place and if so how many Universities will be able to take part. More importantly, it is amazing to me that in 2009, we can start thinking about robotics competitions that involve only humanoid robots and expect many participants. It goes to show how quickly the field of robotics has advanced in the last decade.
RoboCup Rescue 2009 photos
Jul 14th
Amir, one of the participants in this year’s RoboCup Rescue competition was kind enough to let me know of a large collection of photos from the competition that he would like to share with all of us. For context, the rescue competition is designed to stimulate research in building autonomous or semi-autonomous mobile robots that can assist in rescue operations in disaster zones, e.g., finding survivors in a collapsed building after a major earthquake. The competition has been taking place annually for more than a decade and I can tell you that the rescue robots are becoming more advanced every year. I am very optimistic that in another 10 years such robots will become a rescuer’s best friend helping save many lives.
With Amir’s permission I have included a couple of the photos at the bottom of this post, but if you want to see the entire collection of more than 100 high resolution photos, go here.
Thank you Amir and I hope your team was successful at the competition.
Robotex 2008: Estonian student robotics competition
Jul 4th
Robotex is a robotics competition that has taken place yearly since 2001 in Estonia. This year, the competition will take place at Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia on December 5th. The theme of the competition is that of a robot cleaning a room. The task involves navigating the environment and collecting soda cans and socks that are scattered throughout the room. Kids everywhere would love to have such a robot.
Prize money for this competitions are a massive 6000 Euro. The registration is free but you have to register by15 October 2008 or you might miss your chance to participate. The competition is open to students but also anyone with an interest in robotics and automation. Moreover, participants in the past were not only from Estonia but also Sweden and Finland so to a certain degree this is an international event.
These robotics competitions are excellent in terms of introducing kids to the wonderful world of robotics. Participation encourages kids to pursue a career in a discipline that is continuously growing considering the need for robotic servants and companions in quickly aging societies. In addition, robotics is a nice platform for teaching analytical skills that are going to be very useful for the kids throughout their lives even if they never pursue careers in robotics.
There are many robotics competitions similar to Robotex worldwide. The largest one is probably the annual RoboCup which attracts not only young students but also advanced graduate students in several challenging competitions including robot soccer and robot rescue. Robotex has been a success since the first event in 2001 and even though I cannot attend myself, if you happen to be in the neighborhood on December 5th, you should go check it out (and send us photos and video.)
PS: I love the Robotex slogan, “where brains and metal meet.” Brilliant!
FIRST Robotics Championship: Let the games begin
Apr 16th
Beginning tomorrow the 17th annual FIRST Championship will test the engineering ingenuity of more than 10,000 students from around the world. The young minds are gathering in Atlanta, Georgia to see how their robotic creations perform in a series of three competitions.
Created by the legendary inventor Dean Kamen back in 1989, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) challenges children as young as six years of age to take part in creating their own cutting edge science and technology solutions. For the last two months more than 1,500 teams representing 37,500 high school students took part in the robotic competitions to earn their invite to Atlanta’s Georgia Dome and the Championship contests. Now that the final teams have been selected they will see which group can take top honors in each of the three competitions.
The FIRST LEGO League will see 81 teams (comprised of over 800 middle-school students) build and program a LEGO Mindstorms robot. Tasks that will need to be completed with the kids’ robot include planting trees and working with sustainable energy technologies like solar panels, wind turbines and hydro-electric dams. In the FIRST Tech Challenge that is open to 1,000 high school students the teams will place their robot in a “quad challenge” where their constructs have to move three-inch rings on a board to score points. Finally in the FIRST Robotics Competition 344 robotics teams will compete against each other in a series of tests designed to whittle the strong from the weak. Their robots will take part in a race to move 40-inch inflated balls around a track as well as over and under a 6-foot, 6-inch overpass.
So what do the kids get for their hard work and effort (besides the opportunity to miss a couple of days of school?) Well for starters the FIRST students are eligible for $10 million dollars in scholarships to some of the country’s best engineering and science schools. As well the students will be able to take part in the 2008 FIRST Robotics Conference that is happening today and tomorrow, allowing the young minds to directly ask questions to the top professors and scientists working in robotics today.
For more info about the Championship, or to see photographs from the events, visit www.usfirst.org.
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