Results

The official route for the year 2007 was announced on Friday 21st of September 2007. Compared to the last year the route was longer and contained slopes and complex turns. The exact code of the route was AEDCHIJLW and you can see it highlighted on the picture.

The homologation itself was also more difficult this year. Robots were tested on start segment A, which is a left turn with very rough surface. On the other hand almost all teams successfully homologated! The only exception was the unfortunate Istrobotics from Bratislava, which failed due to very limited lifetime of their notebook (it died in approx. 5min when run on batteries). Also power electronics for motor controller was probably underrated. But in general, the results of the homologations were very good.

The Saturday contest endured non-stop from 10am till 6pm. The robots started in 5 minutes intervals. From the last year we learned that there are always some little misunderstandings, so there were referee meetings after each round. It turned out that this was a wise decision, and it helped to keep all twelve referees unified.

The points' counting was much clearer this year. Also thanks to RDC (ČVUT-Ericsson-Vodafone R&D Centre), T-Mobile and MapFactor s.r.o., it was possible to see current positions of all robots on the trail, score and ranking. We would rather remind you the way points were counted: the trail is split into 20-30m parts, for which it is possible to get 0 to 4 points. 0-robot left the trail, 1-successful completion without load, 2-successful completion with load, 3-successful completion with two loaded robots, 4-successful completion with three loaded robots. If any robot left the trail twice in the same part the robot could not continue that particular round.

In the first round everyone was stunned by R-team. A small robot created by Martin Locker managed to gather 15 points! All other robotics fell down in despair . The robot was using only odometry and compass, and the whole algorithm was 10kB code size … simply unbelievable. As we would see later on in the contest this combination was really this year's the winning strategy. However, it was deadly when the robot left the road on crossings, where it was returned back to the beginning of the junction. It would continue on the prerecorded path and immediately leave the road again. Even with this deadly limitation the strategy payed off.

The second round was rather tragic. You may find zero points on more than half of the referee sheets. Even the team FoG, which was the only one that came with robots colony, did not score. The reason was the underestimation of batteries charging in majority of cases. Also various parts got loose after the first demanding round.

Good luck had team Robohemia, VUT Brno, and it had it till the competition end. The team scored 46 points and finished the longest distance (collided to a tree in W segment). It turned out that it was already second collision, so valid termination point was first collision with a bench on segment L. It was the case when the robot actually did not leave the road but was not able to continue, i.e. STOP and end of round.

The team Robohemia, as well as R-team, used only odometry and compass. However they managed not to leave the road on the crossings so they gained 46 points also in the 4th and 5th round… and was terminated because of the same bench on L segment, again and again.

The third round was relatively successful for FoG. Two autonomous robots carried the load to segment D and passed two crossings. After that both left the road, probably due to the sharp sun, shining into their cameras. In total 18 points for this round.

This round was also lucky for URPI FEI STU Bratislava. Their robot scored for the first time, and it was 22 points. Zero points, on the other hand, we see on sheet of R-team, due to loosened encoder wheel.

The fourth round favors URIP FEI STU Bratislava — robot with a load travels to the I segment. Bad luck is on the Short Circuits side. They finish approx. 1m from the start line due to mistake in program (wrongly coded if-statement). Robohemia repeats 46-points success so the winner is already known. Dramatic fight for the second and third place continues.

In the last round Robohemia repeats the trip to their terminal bench. It is an obvious first place with 178 points. The second place holds to these moments FoG, with spectacular duo toreador and bull (the second robot was navigated via red scarf on the first robot). Although their last round is the best (20 points), it is not enough for the second place. That belongs to URPI FEI STU Bratislava, which in the last round carries the load to HI crossing. Note that in the last round also Robozor finally scores. Their robust boggie from electric wheelchair would not have a problem to carry a person, but software is not completed yet…