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Tour the Stairs

new contest for indoor autonomous robots

Do you want some indoor challenge in the time before Christmas? Can your robot climb the stairs? If yes then you already completed the first step towards participation in our new competition Tour the Stairs! It is going to be part of European Robotics Week in Prague by the end of November.


Tour the Stairs 2015 — up and down
The second year of the contest „Tour the Stairs” will take place on Saturday 28th November 2015. The robots could climb the stairs up and down this year to make it more interesting for last year participants. The location is the same: NTK Galery in Prague, Dejvice. UPDATE: 7/1 — minivideo

Tour the Stairs 2014 — new contest for indoor autonomous robots
Do you want some indoor challenge in the time before Christmas? Can your robot climb the stairs? If yes then you already completed the first step towards participation in our new competition Tour the Stairs! It is going to be part of European Robotics Week in Prague by the end of November. UPDATE: 13/1 — Official video

Rules overview

The task is relatively easy — climb the stairs (since 2015 also climb down). Well, it is not that trivial, because the robot has to be autonomous and there are two kinds of stairway: straight and spiral. The contest will take place in turns on both stairways (yeah, the Gallery visitors have to have some way to go up and down), and the robot finishing on higher step wins. Note, that speed is not important (there is 3 minutes time limit)
It was already mentioned that the contest will take place in Prague, Gallery NTK in Dejvice, where you can come during the year. You can train there during the festival (Wednesday to Friday, the contest will take place on Saturday).
There are standard restrictions for the robot: it must not be dangerous for the people and the Gallery environment. It has to have big red emergency STOP. Moreover the width is limited by 50cm (so two robots may fit on straight stairway in the future) and length is limited by 1m.
Extra note, that the robot has to touch every step, i.e. it is not allowed to jump several steps, for example.

Stairway (rough measures)

Straight

  • step height 16cm
  • step length 30cm
  • step width 111cm
  • length of landing 93cm
  • number of steps 5+16

Spiral

  • step height 16cm
  • length of outer side 43cm, inner side 13cm
  • step width 109cm
  • length of landing outer 127cm, inner 42cm
  • number of steps 10+11
Note: expect couple centimeters tolerance — for example first step is approximately 14.5cm hight. The color is in both cases black.

Motivation music

  • Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven
  • Richard Muller, Po schodoch

Homologation video

A homologation is part of „Tour the Stairs” contest. It is verification that the robot is safe and that it is capable to climb at least one step (and gain one point). There will be also many other activities in the Gallery and „a little bit of stress” is expected so we highly recommend to record your own „homologation video” before the contest. Simply show us that your robot can climb one step. And that is it! This way it will automatically be listed in competing robots.

Registration form

You can already register with following registration form. The dead line is 31st October 2015.

Contest video 2014