November 5, 2013 at 16:44Eurobot: young robotics competition
I am somewhat surprised that so far no one has said anything about Habrahabr about the youth robotics competitions Eurobot. I have been an active participant for more than a year and would like to share some interesting points related to these competitions, as well as to tell what the main difference is from most other tournaments held.
Eurobot competition appeared in France in 1994 and at that time was a tournament between teams from French universities. The rules changed every year, each time the teams had to create a new robot to perform a new task. By today's standards, the tasks before the robots were quite simple, but at the same time, the teams' approach to performing these tasks was often quite aggressive (for those wishing to study the history of competitions in more detail, I recommend watching a series of videos about tournaments from 1994-1998: video 1 , video 2 ).
In 1998, the first Eurobot international tournament was held (after a request from partners from Switzerland). Since then, international competitions have been held annually. Interest in the event increased every year, and in 2004 the international Eurobot Association was created.
Today, Eurobot's national organizational committees (NOCs) exist in many European countries, including Russia (more detailed information on the work of our committee is available on the new eurobot-russia.org website ).
For spectators, competitions are most often open.
One of the most important features of Eurobot competitions, which qualitatively distinguishes them from others, is the fact that the rules of the game change every year. Thus, almost all teams have a chance to win in more or less equal measure, since it is very difficult (even almost unrealistic) to create the perfect robot that can carry out the task of each new season equally effectively. Every year, the requirements for robots, chassis, and manipulators change. Thus, even with a certain effort, the team that first appeared in the competition can successfully compete and take the prize (for example, in 2013 a new team from MGUPI took 2nd place at the Russian stage of the competition in the League of Autonomous Robots, bypassing several teams recognized by Eurobot veterans).
There are two Eurobot leagues: Eurobot Junior, in which the age limit for participants is 18 years, and the autonomous robot League Eurobot Professional, in which you can participate up to 30 years. The tasks for both leagues over the past few years coincide, but at the same time the competitions themselves are held separately in each league.
Participants in the Junior League to create a game task must create a robot controlled by a wired channel (to slightly complicate the game). Sometimes the rules allow the team to use an additional stand-alone module if desired. Accordingly, the main target audience is secondary and high school. (On the basis of some Moscow schools, laboratories are organized in which such teams work).
Participants in the professional league are faced with a somewhat more complex, but also interesting task - the robot (or robots) must be completely autonomous. Basically, teams from technical institutes or universities take part in professional league competitions, although there are exceptions.
Teams that won prizes at the local stage of the competition are sent to the international stage, the venue of which is determined annually by the international Eurobot committee. In 2011, they were held in Astrakhan, in the upcoming season of 2014 the tournament will be held in Dresden. The traditional "capital" - the main center of the competition - is the town of Ferte-Bernard (La Ferte-Bernard) in France.
At all stages of the competition, teams usually seek to exchange experiences with their colleagues, and since the interest of young engineers in Eurobot is steadily growing and the community of robot developers is growing, the Eurobot tournament is also becoming an excellent applied educational platform.
Competitions are usually held in late spring. From the moment the competition rules are published, a little more than six months pass until the tournament, for which the teams should prepare their robots for participation as much as possible.
According to an already established tradition, game action takes place on a 3x2 meter table. The duration of the race is 90 seconds. On the gaming table are simultaneously robots of two teams. The task of each team is to complete as many points as possible while completing tasks, while trying not to score penalties (which can be obtained, for example, for collisions with a robot of an opposing team). Each team has its own color (traditionally red and blue); more often than not, teams need to perform actions with elements of their own color; for performing them with objects of a different color, points are awarded to the opposing team.
In the first part of the tournament qualification races are held. The result of each race is entered in the standings (the points scored by the teams are kept). At the end of the qualification, the teams that will take part in the final are determined.
The rules for the finals at the Russian and international stages are somewhat different. So, at an international game, the team is eliminating: at the beginning of the final, 16 teams (8 pairs) play one race each, the remaining 8 teams play for the 1/8 finals, then 4, 2 and the winner is determined by the results of the three final races of the remaining two teams. At the Russian stage, the rules are more humane, the game is not going to take off, which leaves the teams with a chance to catch up.
The tasks themselves are determined every year in a new way. At the end of September and the beginning of October, regulations are published on the NOC Eurobot websites, which formulates the essence of each task, the value of their implementation, as well as requirements for robots (the perimeter in the folded and unfolded form, the number of team robots, and so on). In connection with the publication, often in the NOC there are gatherings of teams at which participants can ask questions, look at the elements of the playing field, and also share their ideas with each other. Then begins the intensive work of teams on modeling, creating and debugging robots. This process often continues even during the competition itself. Teams need not only to create a simple, fast and efficient chassis,
The theme of the game last season was called "Happy Birthday!" The robots had to “carry drinks” (collect the glasses placed on the table and build the highest tower or several towers from them on their starting area), “open gifts” (overturn boards of their color installed on the front side of the field to overturn), “pay off candles "on the cake (the candles were cups with an elastic stretched on top, on which a tennis ball was mounted, which had to be pushed inside the glass; only candles of their color had to be put out)," throw cherries on the cake "(cherries - ping-pong balls that needed to be thrown into a basket of their color on the cake. There were also “rotten” (painted) cherries, falling into the basket divided the points received from ripe cherries by two).
Example of the game according to the 2013 regulations:
(The robots of our team did not throw cherries, but did the rest as much as possible and possible).
I take part in competitions as part of the DIMRobotics team . Our team maintains a small blog in which we periodically publish news about ourselves, ways to resolve some issues on the regulations, as well as useful articles, one way or another related to our craft. All videos accompanying blog entries, as well as individual videos about our activities, are published on our YouTube channel.
Information about the competition is published on the website of the NOC Eurobot of Russia , as well as on the website of the international committee .
I will be glad to answer your questions.
A bit of history
Eurobot competition appeared in France in 1994 and at that time was a tournament between teams from French universities. The rules changed every year, each time the teams had to create a new robot to perform a new task. By today's standards, the tasks before the robots were quite simple, but at the same time, the teams' approach to performing these tasks was often quite aggressive (for those wishing to study the history of competitions in more detail, I recommend watching a series of videos about tournaments from 1994-1998: video 1 , video 2 ).
In 1998, the first Eurobot international tournament was held (after a request from partners from Switzerland). Since then, international competitions have been held annually. Interest in the event increased every year, and in 2004 the international Eurobot Association was created.
Today, Eurobot's national organizational committees (NOCs) exist in many European countries, including Russia (more detailed information on the work of our committee is available on the new eurobot-russia.org website ).
For spectators, competitions are most often open.
Ideology
One of the most important features of Eurobot competitions, which qualitatively distinguishes them from others, is the fact that the rules of the game change every year. Thus, almost all teams have a chance to win in more or less equal measure, since it is very difficult (even almost unrealistic) to create the perfect robot that can carry out the task of each new season equally effectively. Every year, the requirements for robots, chassis, and manipulators change. Thus, even with a certain effort, the team that first appeared in the competition can successfully compete and take the prize (for example, in 2013 a new team from MGUPI took 2nd place at the Russian stage of the competition in the League of Autonomous Robots, bypassing several teams recognized by Eurobot veterans).
There are two Eurobot leagues: Eurobot Junior, in which the age limit for participants is 18 years, and the autonomous robot League Eurobot Professional, in which you can participate up to 30 years. The tasks for both leagues over the past few years coincide, but at the same time the competitions themselves are held separately in each league.
Participants in the Junior League to create a game task must create a robot controlled by a wired channel (to slightly complicate the game). Sometimes the rules allow the team to use an additional stand-alone module if desired. Accordingly, the main target audience is secondary and high school. (On the basis of some Moscow schools, laboratories are organized in which such teams work).
Participants in the professional league are faced with a somewhat more complex, but also interesting task - the robot (or robots) must be completely autonomous. Basically, teams from technical institutes or universities take part in professional league competitions, although there are exceptions.
Teams that won prizes at the local stage of the competition are sent to the international stage, the venue of which is determined annually by the international Eurobot committee. In 2011, they were held in Astrakhan, in the upcoming season of 2014 the tournament will be held in Dresden. The traditional "capital" - the main center of the competition - is the town of Ferte-Bernard (La Ferte-Bernard) in France.
At all stages of the competition, teams usually seek to exchange experiences with their colleagues, and since the interest of young engineers in Eurobot is steadily growing and the community of robot developers is growing, the Eurobot tournament is also becoming an excellent applied educational platform.
Competitions are usually held in late spring. From the moment the competition rules are published, a little more than six months pass until the tournament, for which the teams should prepare their robots for participation as much as possible.
Rules of the game
According to an already established tradition, game action takes place on a 3x2 meter table. The duration of the race is 90 seconds. On the gaming table are simultaneously robots of two teams. The task of each team is to complete as many points as possible while completing tasks, while trying not to score penalties (which can be obtained, for example, for collisions with a robot of an opposing team). Each team has its own color (traditionally red and blue); more often than not, teams need to perform actions with elements of their own color; for performing them with objects of a different color, points are awarded to the opposing team.
In the first part of the tournament qualification races are held. The result of each race is entered in the standings (the points scored by the teams are kept). At the end of the qualification, the teams that will take part in the final are determined.
The rules for the finals at the Russian and international stages are somewhat different. So, at an international game, the team is eliminating: at the beginning of the final, 16 teams (8 pairs) play one race each, the remaining 8 teams play for the 1/8 finals, then 4, 2 and the winner is determined by the results of the three final races of the remaining two teams. At the Russian stage, the rules are more humane, the game is not going to take off, which leaves the teams with a chance to catch up.
The tasks themselves are determined every year in a new way. At the end of September and the beginning of October, regulations are published on the NOC Eurobot websites, which formulates the essence of each task, the value of their implementation, as well as requirements for robots (the perimeter in the folded and unfolded form, the number of team robots, and so on). In connection with the publication, often in the NOC there are gatherings of teams at which participants can ask questions, look at the elements of the playing field, and also share their ideas with each other. Then begins the intensive work of teams on modeling, creating and debugging robots. This process often continues even during the competition itself. Teams need not only to create a simple, fast and efficient chassis,
2013 Regulation
The theme of the game last season was called "Happy Birthday!" The robots had to “carry drinks” (collect the glasses placed on the table and build the highest tower or several towers from them on their starting area), “open gifts” (overturn boards of their color installed on the front side of the field to overturn), “pay off candles "on the cake (the candles were cups with an elastic stretched on top, on which a tennis ball was mounted, which had to be pushed inside the glass; only candles of their color had to be put out)," throw cherries on the cake "(cherries - ping-pong balls that needed to be thrown into a basket of their color on the cake. There were also “rotten” (painted) cherries, falling into the basket divided the points received from ripe cherries by two).
Example of the game according to the 2013 regulations:
(The robots of our team did not throw cherries, but did the rest as much as possible and possible).
About myself
I take part in competitions as part of the DIMRobotics team . Our team maintains a small blog in which we periodically publish news about ourselves, ways to resolve some issues on the regulations, as well as useful articles, one way or another related to our craft. All videos accompanying blog entries, as well as individual videos about our activities, are published on our YouTube channel.
Information about the competition is published on the website of the NOC Eurobot of Russia , as well as on the website of the international committee .
I will be glad to answer your questions.