2010 Events
The 2010 ICRA Robot Challenge will feature four events. Two of the events, the Planetary Robotic Contingency and the Virtual Manufacturing Automation Challenge will be largely the same as in previous yeaqrs. This supports the goal of demonstrating progress in the events from year to year. There will also be two new events this year, the Mobile Microbotics Challenge and the Mobile Manipulation Challenge.
Mobile Microbotics Challenge
In this new event for 2010, microrobots on the order of the diameter of a human hair face off in tests of speed and agility.
Mobile Manipulation
The goal of this Challenge is to provide a snapshot of the state of the art in mobile manipulation, while encouraging collaboration and dissemination of ideas. All of these events are new for 2010. Events include:
(1) Object Retrieval: The robot must clear a room that has been used as a toddler's playground by retrieving all of the toys and placing them in a large box.
(2) Loading a Dishwasher: The robot must clear a dining table and place all the dishes in a dishwasher tray.
(3) Table Top Chess
(4) Open Demonstrations.
The Planetary Robotic Contingency
This event simulates an unexpected problem occurring at a planetary habitat, where a robotic solution must be quickly developed and deployed, using only existing resources. The intent of this event is to develop versatile robotic systems and software that can be adapted quickly to address unexpected events. Since humans are present, a natural solution to realistic unexpected events would exploit human creativity and human-robot interaction.
The competition drives not only the development of versatile robotic hardware and on-board software, but also the design and development of programming and assembly tools capable of rapidly implementing a wide variety of capabilities. Since tele-operation is not precluded for this event, the development of effective user interfaces is another expected outcome.
The Virtual Manufacturing Automation Challenge
This event simulates the buffer zone of a manufacturing plant. Participants will utilize multiple simulated forklifts (simulated in USARSim) to move pallets from a loading zone into a sorted storage area. This event is intended to showcase multi-vehicle cooperation and autonomous mobility in constricted spaces. The event will be run with no human intervention and remote participation will be possible.
