AAAI 2002 Mobile Robot
Contest and Exhibition
July 29 - August 1, 2002, Edmonton, Alberta
Robot Host Contest
Chairs: David Gustafson
and Francois
Michaud
The
robot host competition is intended to give robotic teams (including
undergraduate teams) an opportunity to demonstrate the usefulness of robots in
a conference setting.
The objective of this
contest is to create service robots that can offer dessert to attendees at a
reception and can provide information about the conference schedule to
attendees during conference breaks.
There will be two separate tasks: a dessert server and a mobile information server. It is expected that each team will compete in both tasks. The final standings will be based on the points earned in each task.
The
list of currently registered will be here. The schedule
will be here.
If
think you would like to participate (even if you are not certain), please register
your interest. Participants who register early will be given the
greatest consideration with regards to equipment and funding, but we will do
our best to accommodate late submissions as well.
Checklist:
To
ensure that the research aspects of your exhibit are clearly understood, each
entrant is strongly encouraged to submit a two page abstract summarizing your
approach.
You will have an
opportunity to present your work at a workshop on Thursday, August 1, and write
a longer paper by 1 September for publication in the workshop proceedings.
There will be two separate
tasks: a dessert server and a mobile information server. It is expected that each team will
compete in both tasks. The final
standings will be based on the points earned in each task.
During the reception, the
entries will be serving dessert. The
goal is to perform the serving task as efficiently as possible. It is expected that each entry will
make an effort to circulate throughout the reception area offering the desserts
to as many individuals as possible.
It is expected that the server will sense when the desserts are gone and
will return to the serving station for a refill.
Unlike previous years, there will be no specific
points for interaction with individuals.
The grading will be based on effectiveness of serving desserts.
The mobile information
server will be stationed in the break areas of the exhibit hall and will
provide information about the talks and sessions at the conference. The server will greet individuals and
offer the information services.
The individual’s request may be entered via keyboard or by voice. Computer responses are expected to be
spoken and visually displayed. The user interface is expected to be
user-friendly.
The
information will be provided in electronic form at the conference. The format will be posted at least 2
weeks before the conference. Last
year’s format can be found on the aaai2001 conference site.
Extra
points will be given for highlighting the changes to the schedule.
Effectiveness
in providing the information services is the main criteria for evaluation.
Robots are allowed to touch attendees.
Specifically, in their attempt to serve food, a robot may "nudge" a
person in order to get through a crowd and serve food to other groups of
people. Preference is given to robots that can accomplish this without
touching, but it is better to nudge people than to stay stranded in a single
spot. Note that hurting people by making hard or continued contact, or rolling
over toes will be heavily penalized (and the robots may be banned from further
competition). Consider this to be along the lines of Asimov's Rules of Robotics
Identifying markers may be used if the
markers are unobtrusive
Each competition will be
divided into two events. All contestants must first compete in the
qualification/safety event and if deemed safe can then compete in the judged event.
The first round, which is mandatory, will be
a qualification/safety round. In this round, each robot will be evaluated in
four areas:
The environment will not be engineered for the
event. Do not assume the floor is flat. You can assume that cabling might lay
on the floor, or that the robot might need to pass over bare floor to carpeted
areas. Furniture and other structures will be natural and may not be marked or
altered for the sake of the robots. The crowd will not be limited. The food to be served will be provided
by AAAI/conference services.
Robots will have a serving tray (please provide your own
tray). It is expected that the robot, in addition to detecting the need for
more food, will navigate to the teams "refill" location. The refill
area may be marked by the team with a sign or special mark. We would favor
robots that found its refill station via visual recognition of a marker than
via dead reckoning. Markers that are more *natural* are better then markers
that are completely artificial.
The environment will not be engineered for the
event; the normal break area will be used. Do not assume the floor is flat. You
can assume that the robot might need to pass over bare floor to carpeted areas.
Furniture and other structures will be natural and may not be marked or altered
for the sake of the robots. The crowd will not be limited.
The robots will be evaluated by a panel of
judges. A subjective score between 1 and 10 will be determined by each judge.
These scores will be averaged to produce a final score. The contestants will be
evaluated on overall success as well as on any particular abilities they
incorporate into their solutions. These abilities include the following which
are roughly ordered from minimum requirements to special credit:
Place awards for technical merit will be
based on the judges' scores from the Qualification/Safety Round and from the
performance in the reception event.
...
please contact us at dag@cis.ksu.edu or francois.michaud@gel.usherb.ca