Results
Robohemia is winner of Robotour 2007 contest!
This year's presence was much better than last year. There were fifteen teams registered, come twelve, and almost all homologate. Moreover Bender I Team, winner of the last year contest, arrived and participated too. Shortly there were many interesting things to see. So how was it in detail?
Homologation
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.
Contest
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.
First round (start 10:00)
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.
Second round (start 11:30)
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.
Third round (start 13:00)
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.
Fourth round (start 14:30)
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.
Fifth round (start 16:00)
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…
Final ranking
Ranking | Team | 1st round | 2nd round | 3rd round | 4th round | 5th round | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Robohemia | 10 | 46 | 30 | 46 | 46 | 178 |
2. | URPI FEI STU Bratislava | 0 | 0 | 22 | 26 | 26 | 74 |
3. | FoG | 8 | 0 | 18 | 17 | 20 | 63 |
4. | R-team | 15 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 30 |
5. | RobSys | 4 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 26 |
6. | Bender I. Team | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 23 |
7. | Red Team Brno | 6 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 20 |
8. | Short Circuits | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 14 |
9. | Logio | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
10. | Bender II Team | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
11.-12. | Propeler-team | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
11.-12. | Robozor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |