Flying robots contest

Hello!

Here we are making a contest of flying robots, here are the details .
The prize is one million rubles.
Already received more than 20 applications from individual participants and from teams.

Below are tips for participants, answers to questions that have already arisen, plus information about similar competitions in Russia and abroad.
')

Task

Here at such a range, completely autonomously fly up from the starting point, fly past the obstacle to the finish line and sit on the finish line. Then take off again, go back to the start and sit down. If by the end of the task the device is working, no one touched his or his control with his hands, then the attempt is considered to be a success. To determine the places, the best attempt time is taken into account.



The site will be in the open air (with a grid at the top, that is, slight precipitation is possible). Walls like a hockey "box" will provide windscreen protection, but if it rains heavily, it is possible to carry out flights. Fog does not cancel flights.

Polygon 50 to 25 meters, the height to the grid is about 3 meters, everything inside is radio transparent. Start and finish are marked with crosses, diameter - 3 meters. The obstacle moves before each departure (but not during the execution of the attempt), the landing zone also moves.

During the day, team members will be able to visit and explore the site.

Tips

You shouldn’t really rely on GPS (although we plan to have a GPS signal), since its accuracy is extremely low and we cannot do without a normal inertial system and additional sensors. You can use a wide arsenal of sensors: video cameras, laser range finders (lasers not higher than class 2), ToF cameras, ultrasonic range finders, IR and so on.

No need to create the flying platform from scratch. You can take the available models or whales and hang them with additional sensors. We believe that it is right to concentrate precisely on the control system, and not on the basic flight problems that have already been solved.

Ideally, I would like to see the most autonomous devices, but the control system algorithm can also be located on the ground station. In order not to reinvent the wheel, you can use the existing recognition libraries, for example, openCV.

How to fly?

• Fully autonomous, you cannot control the robot in manual mode during the execution of the task. At the same time, the robot can transmit telemetry to your computer, that is, an external unit of any complexity can be used.
• The judge must be able to turn off the robot (for safety reasons of the audience and participants). For this he needs to provide a remote or something similar.
• This is a competition of flying, not jumping robots, therefore, it is impossible to land other than on a marker - fails to try.
• You can bump into the walls: if the robot regularly flies farther, it does not affect the success of the attempt.
• Neither the participant nor the spectators see the position of the obstacle and the landing pad before take-off - the monitors are turned off.
• Any device for vertical takeoff and landing is allowed. Only electric motors can be used. Fuel-powered platforms are not allowed to compete.

What you need to know about the landfill?

• Place - Moscow or near Moscow.
• The walls are visually opaque, the material is plywood, plastic, foam. The color is unknown before the flight, but it will not be graphite black and not white. It is possible that it will be just unpainted plywood.
• The walls will be visible on the ultrasound, laser and optical sensor.
• Radio beacons can be placed in any place outside the polygon “box”. I would like to see maximum autonomous devices at the competition, so no means of installing beacons will be provided and for their power supply everything is at the discretion of the participant. Light beacons can not be set. You can use GPS. Additional equipment cannot be installed inside the landfill.
• Obstacles - vertical walls with a gap from the ground to the ceiling. On the obstacles and walls can be bars and strips on plywood - at the junction of sheets and corners. The grid on top will be from a material that does not shield the radio signal.
• We will not cover the polygon floor with a special one. There will be no grass, we will select a place with a dense coating, normally reflecting ultrasound. The color of the coating is not regulated. If it is rainy weather (although we, of course, will try to foresee this moment), the coating can be wet and with puddles. The coating will differ in contrast to the take-off and landing markers, since none of the natural surfaces have a clear black or white color. Contours - 5-10 cm.
• Controlled lighting will not be. Of the pitfalls - many will take pictures, so you need to use filters so that the logic does not go crazy with flashes.

Pro try and platform

• The countdown starts from the moment the engines start. A DVR with time stamp recording will be used.
• Landing - at the touch of all supports or the chassis without stopping the screws. If the device "jumped" immediately after landing, but at the moment of touching all the points of the chassis / support touched the platform, then this is considered a successful landing. Controversial points are resolved by video. From experience, I do not recommend striving to save on this split second, it is better to plant the device “tightly” so that the touch is clearly recorded by the cameras.
• The total time is counted from the moment of launching the screws on the launch pad and until landing on it after the task has been completed. Place in the circle is not important, the fact of landing is important and the fact that all points of the chassis / support must be inside the landing pad.
• You can use existing flying platforms. You can use any ready-made libraries. The development should be new: for example, if we have a team of participants with a ready drone left from similar contests, we will disqualify them.
• Only lasers up to class 2 can be used (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety#Class_2). Those. those that cannot harm the human eye. The organizer may ask participants to show the markings of laser devices before flying.
• The airwaves will be monitored. With anomalies and obvious interference - plus try. All but the serving team are prohibited from using radio equipment.
• The same minimum route length will be provided.
• The team exposes only one robot. One person can only be in one team.

Until November 15, you need only to submit an application or already prepare a project?

Until November 15, applications are accepted for participation in the competition. The final of the competition will be held in August 2013, which means that participants will have time to create a robot.

CROC will also participate?

A team of CRIC employees will participate. At the same time, the place and the prize will not be awarded to the team, although its result will be present in the general table. According to the results of the competition, we plan to publish the program code developed by us.

Past contests

Robot contests have quite a rich history. It is worth noting these:

• In 2009, the year on the " Vacation of robots in the Polytechnic "
• In 2010 - the Youth Scientific and Technical Festival " Mobile Robots - 2010 " from Moscow State University and the Second Open Robotic Tournament for the Cup of the Polytechnic Museum
• In 2011 - the Siberian Robotics Festival ROBOTECH-2011 , which was made with the support of the regional administration and several organizations and the Competition of robots in the framework of the VI Science Festival - the program " DIY Robot "
• This year - the UMNIK-BOT Robot Olympics Games , the IV All-Russian Robotic Festival - RoboFest 2012 , the All-Russian competition on robotics and intelligent systems in Novosibirsk, plus, of course, the Russian national qualifying competition for mobile robots Eurobot 2012 .
• An example of a foreign competition.