The ICRA Robot Challenge

Participation

There are three stages required for participation in the ICRA Robot Challenge. Teams must complete all three stages in order to participate in the Challenge. Teams who have not successfully completed all three stages will not be allowed to participate in the Challenge, and will not be eligible for travel funding.

Notice of Intent to Participate

All teams that seriously intend to participate should visit:

http://icra.wustl.edu/

and sign up for the mailing list. This is very important as time-critical information regarding the competition will be sent out on this list only. An email message must be sent to the Challenge Chairs, Bill Smart and Paul Rybski (addresses are on the web page), declaring the team's intent to participate. This email should include the following information:

Team leader name, affiliation, email address, and phone number

Team name

Events that the team plans to enter (Sandbox, Contingency, HRI)

Estimated number of team members

Whether or not the team is willing to have your email address appear on the ICRA Robot Challenge web pages.

Once we have received a team's email, we will post the team name on the competition web page, indicating that the team is interested in participating.

The deadline for the receipt of notice of intent to participate is 23:59:59 Pacific Time, January 31st, 2008.

Qualification

After registering their intent to participate in the Challenge, teams must complete a qualifying step. No team will be allowed to register for the Challenge until they have successfully completed the qualifying step.

The deadline for submitting qualification materials to the Chairs by email is 23:59:59 Pacific Time, March 15th, 2008. This deadline is firm, and will not be extended for any reason. We STRONGLY encourage teams to submit their materials as soon as possible, to avoid problems with email attachments and the like. There is no penalty for resubmission, in the case that the initial qualification materials are insufficient.

To qualify, teams are required to submit a 2-page abstract, in ICRA conference format, providing a summary of their robot, what will be demonstrated at the Challenge, and the approach that will be taken. Teams entering multiple events will be required to submit one abstract for each event.

In addition to the abstract, teams must submit a short (2 minute max) video of their robot that shows the capabilities to be demonstrated at the Challenge and/or discusses the current state of the system's development. Teams that cannot demonstrate a functional system in this video may be required to provide additional information regarding the development schedule/process that will convince the organizers that the system will be ready on the day of the event.

Please also include an estimated amount for travel funding that you plan on requesting. This will be limited to shipments costs for the robot, and for travel costs for registered team members. At this point, food and lodging expenses cannot be covered.

Registration

On April 1st, 2008, the teams that have been qualified to enter the event will be notified of their acceptance as well as the amount of travel funding they have been awarded. The amount of travel funding awarded will depend on the amount of available funds, the relative needs of the teams, and the numbers of teams applying for funding.

Once qualified, the team leader will be required to purchase a registration for the main ICRA conference, through the conference web site. Teams whose leader is not registered for the main conference will not be allowed to participate in the Challenge. Upon the team leader registering, we will provide complimentary Robot Challenge registrations for the remainder of the team. These registrations will allow entry to the conference, the competition area, the private competition work area, coffee breaks, receptions, and the conference banquet (limit of 5 banquet tickets per team). The registration deadline and costs will be listed on the main ICRA 2008 conference web site.