Introduction of teams
Robotour first time in ,,foreign country''
This year Robotour is organized outside Czech Republic for the first time. This fact is noticeable a bit on origin of teams: there are 6 local (Slovak) teams, 12 Czech teams and 1 Italian team. If you are interested to see simultaneous start from one place of almost twenty fully autonomous robots, do not hesitate and come to Botanic garden in Bratislava. And in case of machines failure the beautiful surroundings will surely compensate it …
Let's shortly introduce all teams, although most of them you could already see
last year in Robotour in Brno or at some other contests.
ARBot
ARBot is team from Prague, which will compete with a small robot. The robot was
adapted to carry required 5 liter barrel. This barrel will be full or empty
based on negotiability of the roads (this year rules require at least empty
barrel so robots can have chance to detect each other).
BestBase
Two man team from Bratislava, which you could see recently on RoboOrienteering
contest in Rychnov nad Kněžnou. We will see how domestic environment will suit
the team.
Brmlab
New, so far not very courageous, team from Prague. The plan is to build a robot
controlled by EEE notebook and GPS. Sonar will be used for obstacle detection.
Good luck!
CGS Robotics
Italian team, which you could see first time in action last year in Brno. GS
Robotics has background in Gustavo Stefanini research center and will compete
with robot Felix. It is in reality commercially available Pioneer 3-AT,
equipped with camera, GPS and laser range finder Hokuyo UTM-30LX.
Eduro Team
Eduro Team for Robotour 2010 is in reality union of last year RobSys Team and
Cogito MART. You could see their robot Eduro Maxi HD for the first time in
Písek (Robot, Go Straight! contest) or later in Rychnov nad Kněžnou (RoboOrienteering
contest). The basic sensors are laser SICK LMS100, camera with wide
angle lens, sonar, compass and GPS.
Istrobotics
Experienced Slovak team, which participated probably in all Robotour contests.
You could see upturn tendency, so hopefully this year they finally successfully
score …
Limacon Čáslav
New team of Czech enthusiasts from Čáslav. Robot should navigate via camera and
ultrasound sensors.
Navigate 4
Slovak team, which did not handle it last year, so this year premiere?
Odysseus
The successor of successful team LEE (winner of the last two Robotour
contests). We will see how the "new generation" will deal with non-trivial
task …
Propeler
Originally high-school team from Opava. But this was four years ago. Now it is
rather "family team". The robot frame from last year was modified to be able to
carry empty barrel, but the rest remains the same. Bogie MOB-03 from
snailinstruments.com is used as base, three
sonars SRF08 and compass CMPS03. The road following algorithm is primarily
based on image recognition (source is web camera). The team also plans to use
GPS receiver for current position estimation. Most of the code is written again
in Java.
Roboauto + Roboauto Quido
The Roboauto team decided to split this year into two teams with two
independent robots. Their two autonomous models of cars use slightly different
approaches so even authors wonder how they will behave.
Quido is modified model
RC
car with with smooth speed control forward and backward. Sensors are LIDAR
for obstacle detection, inertial unit, GPS, camera, odometer and compass. The
main controller is notebook + 100 MBit switch. Software is on
Windows platform, combination of applications in C++, Delphi and Java. Communication
among modules is realized via TCP/IP.
RoboKop Tým Brno
RoboKop should enter in the same lineup like last year in Brno. Note, that this
is also the team, to who we are grateful for contact and arrangement of cargo
for robots from brewery Černá Hora, thank
you .
Robozor
Team from České Budějovice will probably arrive with robot based on wheelchair.
For obstacle detection they plan to used sonars but they do not plan to risk
obstacle avoidance. More detail info is currently not available.
Radioklub Písek
Radioklub Písek will go only with loco robot (LOKO) without wagons this year.
We will see if they change their mind, because train with wood and cistern was
very attractive. (Note, that in the last version of rules are accompanying
robots again allowed but without extra bonus points).
Short Circuits Praha
Robot is based on MOB-03 platform. The main processing power is notebook Asus
EEE. The hardware is monitored by micro-controller AVR ATMEGA8. Sensors are
encoders, compass, sonar and GPS receiver. Software is written in Python
language. The main program collects current information about HW by RS232.
Information about status is determined by ATMEGA8, which sends it regularly to
main program.
The main program converts data info platform independent unit and then controls
speed by PID controller, localisation from odometry, GPS and compass (Monte
Carlo Localisation), detects obstacles with reaction, and finally provides
navigation on desired trajectory. The navigation is using camera with
panoramatic mirror as main sensor. The robot will try to avoid obstacles by
Vector Field Histogram algorithm.
Sirael
Sirael is actually old-new team, which you could see on the first Robotour in
2006 in Prague. The bogie is completely new and so far proved usability (Sirael
won last RoboOrienteering contest), so we will see how robot Irena will succeed
in Bratislava with help of camera and laser range finder LMS100.
Smelý Zajko
Slovak team with wood-aluminium construction combined with bogie from company
Parallax ("Motor Mount and Wheel Kit with Position Controller"). I am a little
bit curious … but the photo gives us already some idea what to expect .
Tatran Team Trenčín
Tatran Team participated in contest Eurobot long time ago. Now they want to try
outdoor contest, but is is not clear if robot will be prepared in time. The
bogie is with tracks (is it the only robot with tracks) with motors powered by
24V, own electronics and controller via PWM. The controller communicates with
main PC via RS232. Camera and GPS will be used for robot navigation and diffuse
detectors (Balluff) will be used for obstacle detection.
URPI
URPI is partially „organizing team”, so hopefully they will handle everything
in time. So far we do not know, if the robot will have tower from Mechano as
last year or it will use robotic arm as demonstrated on some older photos.
If you want this contest somehow support or you have some comments/questions,
do not hesitate to contact us via web
form.