Robot competition

A robotic competition is an event where robots have to accomplish a task. Usually they have to beat other robots in order to become the best one.

Many competitions are for schools but several professional competitions are arising.

The following examples describe a few of the higher profile events.

Roborace will be a global motorsport championship with autonomously driving, electrically powered vehicles. The series will be run as a support series during the Formula E championship for electric vehicles. This will be the first global championship for driverless cars.

The DARPA Grand Challenge was a rally style race for driverless cars. The unclaimed 2004 prize for navigating through the Mojave Desert was $1,000,000. The farthest any participant got was only 7.4 miles. However, the 2005 prize of $2,000,000 was claimed by Stanford University. In this race, five autonomous vehicles crossed the finish line.

The 2007 competition pitted the vehicles against a mock-urban course with live traffic obstacles. Six vehicles crossed the finish line. Cash prizes were $2,000,000 for first place, $1,000,000 for second place, and $500,000 for third place. DARPA believes that autonomous vehicle technology will continue to rapidly develop without further contests so the race series has ended. The top prize in 2007 was claimed by Carnegie Mellon University.

The race was to help develop technology required by the US Congress to be installed on US military land combat vehicles "as soon as possible and before 2015." Accomplishing the conversion of one third of the US Army's one million vehicles to driverless operation still represents a significant challenge. Other branches of the US armed forces have similar numbers of land vehicles to convert. Congress has also set deadlines for air and sea vehicle conversions.

The social benefit of preventing traffic fatalities by applying DARPA Grand Challenge robotics to land transportation is significant. Military use of this technology is unofficially estimated at being able to save one soldiers life a day. Civilian use of this technology in cars, busses, and trucks is estimated by the US Department of Transportation as being able to save 166 lives a day on US roadways.

Held annually since 1992, The IGVC challenges college student teams to develop an autonomous ground vehicle that must navigate an obstacle course, complete with a list of mobility and design requirements. Partnerships between students and industry leaders enable the competition to serve as an educational experience.

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Wikipedia