OSGAR is a long term project which will probably incorporate more than one robotic platform in the future. The project started in 2014 when we decided to modify school garden tractor John Deere X300R into autonomous robot. The project is carried on in cooperation with the Czech University of Life Science Prague. Blog update: 21/10 — OSGAR v0.0.1 released!

Letos na podzim se koná další ročník soutěže „SICK Robot Day”. Hrací plocha je opět tělocvična (cca 13 x 7 metrů), kde proti sobě nastoupí dva soutěžní roboti + jeden organizátorský! Ten bude jezdit po kruhové dráze s nákladem železných koulí a úkolem soutěžních robotů je „uloupit co se dá” a dopravit lup do vlastního doupěte. Blog update: 18/10 — Eduro video

Robotour Marathon is a new discipline helping teams to prepare to hard Robotour contest held typically in September. The first marathon confirmed that the best 3 teams already participated and tested their robots in complex environments. Note, that there is a new monthly scoring scheme for year 2019. (Update 5/10: Cogito 539m)

On Sunday there is always a workshop of all teams after the contest. They share their findings what worked and what did not, what is in reality inside of their smart robots, how they liked the new rules etc. Here you can find PDF presentations of most of the teams.

Je čas dělat „podzemní robotiku”, minimálně DARPA (americká armáda) si to myslí. První cena v nové SubT Challange jsou 2 milióny USD a již se neomezuje pouze na američany. Vedle Systems kategorie, kde se očekává netriviální kombinace mnoha mapovacích robotů zvládající náročné podmínky v podzemí, je k dispozici i Virtual kategorie, online v simulátoru Gazebo 11.

The 13th year of Robotour contest took place in a beautiful garden of castle Lednice. We could witness many unexpected twists in robot behaviors, but also many great achievements of some well prepared teams. Deservedly won team JECC Fesl from Germany, both the Marathon (over 4km last weekend) and the Robotour 2018. (Update 22/9/2018 ARBot video)

Robotour Marathon is a new discipline starting in season 2017/18. There are several motivations for this new challenge, where probably the first one is to improve level of testing = level of robot realiability in Robotour contest. Moreover it provides comparison of different teams around the whole world over the year. (Update 10/9: JECC Fesl 4182m)

Projekt „Roboloď” pro mne začal na vánočním večírku 2015, tj. skoro před třemi lety. Bývalý kolega z práce říkal, že jeho kamarád shání někoho, kdo by dokázal zrobotizovat lodičku zavážející krmení do sádek na rybníce. Projekt byl (a stále je) takový „tajuplný”, ale nakonec jsme se se dvěma dalšími kamarády rozhodli do toho jít. Když nic, tak ověříme, jak se nám spolupracuje a na vodě jsme s robotama ještě nebyli … Blog update: 8/9 — Vodní test 3

There are 13 registered teams (3 of them have incomplete registration at the moment) for Robotour 2018 which will take place in Czech Republic (castle garden Lednice) on 15th of September 2018. The teams are mostly veterans except The JK-Team from Technical University Deggendorf, which will come with their commercial platform Jackal from Clearpath Robotics. We can again look forward to see participants from Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland.

Pulurobotics from Finland decided to offer a new product: PuluTOF for Raspi with controller hat and four sensors. It is already working inside their robot Pulu M. The price for PuluTOF will be around the same as low-end LIDAR, less than 500 EUR with four sensors, but it gives you at 5Hz 3D point cloud instead of a single plane. Blog update: 9/8 ROS installed

Devátý ročník soutěže RoboOrienteering se celkově velmi podobal tomu předešlému. Stejně jako v loňském roce se roboti utkali v parku v Mariánských Lázních … jen letos dorazilo více německých týmů než českých!

V sobotu 12. května proběhl desátý jubilejní ročník závodů autíček a robůtků v Píseckém parku nazvaný Robotem Rovně aneb Autíčka V Parku. Soutěž se koná za každého počasí na krásném místě ve středu města Písek na trase 314m dlouhé. Cílem opravdu není nic jiného než ujet 314metrů rovně bez zásahu jakékoliv obsluhy.

MYR2017 is outdoor contest for autonomous robots organized by French company Naio Technologies. The participants have to first demonstrate that they are able to control Naio robot in Simulatoz (yes, Z is correct) provided by the company. Then only the best teams can run their code on the real robot. The first prize is 1000 EUR in each category (simulation, real navigation and free style). Blog update: 1/12 — Summary

On Sunday there is always a workshop of all teams after the contest. They share their findings what worked and what did not, what is in reality inside of their smart robots, how they liked the new rules etc. This year we were recording so although it is not the top quality you can see and hear what was presented.

Twelfth year of Robotour contest introduced new „delivery” rules, which we had to tweak a little bit on the way to Žilina and also during the competition. After that the satisfaction was both on the side of teams as well as organizers. And who managed the latest task the best? The team which tested the most … Czech/Swiss team Cogito! (Update 20/9: added new links and videos)

There are 15 registered teams for Robotour 2017 which will take place in Slovakia (Žilina) on 16th of September 2017. The list is an interesting mixture of old, new and „renovated” teams, for which was the far contest location the last blocking point. We can again look forward to see participants from Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Switzerland.

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