Servo - May 2008

Send updates, new listings, corrections, complaints, and suggestions to: steve@ncc.com or FAX 972-404-0269

Know of any robot competitions I’ve missed? Is your local school or robot group planning a contest? Send an email to steve@ncc.com and tell me about it. Be sure to include the date and location of your contest. If you have a website with contest info, send along the URL as well, so we can tell everyone else about it.

For last-minute updates and changes, you can always find the most recent version of the Robot Competition FAQ at Robots.net: http://robots.net/rcfaq.html

— R. Steven Rainwater

May

1

UNI Mini-Sumo Robotics Challenge
Student Union, University of Northern Iowa,
Cedar Falls, IA
There are two notable features about this Mini-
Sumo event. The first novelty is that it allows
“ship-in” competitors. Robot builders from other
states and even outside the country shipped in
robots to compete in the 2007 competition. The
second interesting feature is that the event is
streamed live over the web, so don’t forget to
tune in and watch.
http://list.dprg.org/archive/2008-March/
031554.html

3

The Tech Museum of Innovation's Annual
Tech Challenge
Parkside Hall, San Jose, CA
A different robot challenge is designed each year.
Check the rules on the website for the details of
this year’s challenge.
http://techchallenge.thetech.org

5-9

Alcabot and Hispabot
University of Alcala, Madrid, Spain
Both competitions are being held together this
year. Events include Sumo, maze solving, line
following, and robot soccer.
www.depeca.uah.es/alcabot

10

CybAiRBot
Poznan, Poland
Robot Sumo using standard Japanese rules.
www. sumo.put.poznan.pl

10

DPRG RoboRama
Fair Park, Dallas, TX
All new events this year including two contests for
indoor robots that involve navigating a course
delineated by orange cones. Also, four contests for
outdoor robots including Out-and-Back, Borenstein
Squares, an obstacle course, and the Long Haul.
www.dprg.org/competitions

17

PDXBot

Doubletree Hotel, Lloyd Center, Portland, OR This year’s PDXBot will include “robot competitions, exhibits, vendors, raffles, and more.” Past events have had an impressive array of robot events, so be sure to attend if you can. http://portlandrobotics.org

17-18 Swiss Eurobot

Yverdon-les-Bains, La Marive, Switzerland Regional event for Eurobot competition. www.swisseurobot.ch

19-23 ICRA Robot Challenge

Pasadena, CA

This contest includes three events with intriguing names: Autonomous Planetary Surface Exploration; Teleoperated Robot Emergency Mission; and Human-Robot Interaction http://icra.wustl.ed

21-25 Eurobot

Heidelberg, Germany

Even though the name implies Europe, the contest is open to anyone. Previous Eurobots have had entries from as many as 350 teams from 26 countries. The 2008 event is called Mission to Mars and involves simulated Mars robots looking for signs of life. www.eurobot.org