RoCKIn@home (left) and RoCKIn@work (right). Source: RoCKIn

Over the last 20 years, robot competitions have emerged as a powerful means to foster progress in robotics research and development (R&D). RoCKIn is part a of new generation of scientific robotics competitions that were launched out of the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme.

By combining the scientific rigor and repeatability of experiments with the real-world relevance and spectacle of competitive events, robot competitions are able to offer a highly complementary approach to traditional lab-based R&D. Through competition events and the development of a robust benchmarking methodology, RoCKIn aims to further innovation in the field of industrial and domestic robotics. From the 21-23 November, we will be holding our second and major competition event in Lisbon, Portugal.

Here, within purpose-built domestic and industrial arenas, teams from around the world will compete in tasks designed to be highly relevant to the real-world challenges, all in front of a live audience. For the teams, the event gives them an opportunity to network, share tips and tricks with their peers, learn from seasoned robotics experts, and gain key insights into the strengths and weaknesses of their robotic systems. There are two ‘Challenges’ or streams in which teams can compete in – RoCKIn@Home or RoCKIn@Work.

RoCKIn@Home

This Challenge focuses on assisting the elderly or impaired and is set within the apartment of Granny Annie – an elderly lady who needs some support to keep her healthy, active and safe. Robots are benchmarked on three tasks and three specific functionalities. The tasks include interacting appropriately with known and unknown visitors to the apartment, and helping Granny Annie with everyday actions such as opening and closing the window blinds. These require the robot to correctly understand a set of predefined and recognisable commands, work interactively with other devices (such as security cameras and remotely controllable lights and blinds) and navigate the arena without colliding into anything. The three specific functionalities being tested include how accurately the robots perceive objects.

RoCKIn@Work

This Challenge looks for innovative industrial robots that can help businesses meet increasing demand from their customers. Once again, robots will be benchmarked on three tasks and three functionalities. Set in the RoCKIn & RoLLIn factory, a robot will assist with the assembly of a drive axel – this a component of the robot itself and therefore a step towards self-replicating robots. Tasks include locating, transporting and assembling necessary parts, checking their quality and prepping them for other machines and workers. Ultimately, the robots will be working interactively as personal mobile assistants in a highly flexible and continuously changing production line.

In both Challenges, data is taken directly from the robots and compared with ground truth data captured from specialized infrared cameras set up around the arena that, through marker sets attached to the robots, can accurately determine their true movements within the arena. This data is used not only for evaluation purposes but also allows teams to get detailed feedback on their performance and isolates the areas they need to improve. It also aims to provide the international robotics community with rich datasets and metrics for task and functionality benchmarking.

RoCKIn2015 is open free-of-charge to the public, who will get to see the state-of-the-art robots autonomously perform these challenging tasks. The competition will be held in the ‘Portugal Pavilion’ and Lisbon’s premier science museum – ‘The Pavilion of Knowledge’. The Portugal Pavilion will host the RoCKIn@Home and RoCKIn@Work arenas, where the competition activities and demonstrations will take place. The opening and closing ceremonies, along with various satellite events throughout the three days, will be held in The Pavilion of Knowledge. Both are situated within Parque das Nações, in Lisbon.

The event is currently accepting applications and is open to new teams, as well as seasoned ‘RoCKIans’. Vistors, make sure you save the date and join RoCKIn for the final showdown in November to see what the future could have in store for all of us.

Key dates

Deadline for Applications: 31 August 2015

Decision on Qualified Teams: 8 September 2015

Registration open (qualified teams only): 9 – 30 September 2015

Website: http://rockinrobotchallenge.eu

The RoCKIn2014 competition event is taking place right now, you can watch the live stream, broadcasting directly from Cité de l’espace science museum and you can also view the live scores from RoCKIn2014 website. Read more below.

(click “Live scores” on the website below for the scores)

http://rockinrobotchallenge.eu/rockin2014.php

Follow the event on twitter:

Tweets by @RoCKInChallenge

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Call for participation: RoCKIn Camp 2014
• RoCKIn Robot Challenge looks at task scenarios to help shape future competitions

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RoCKIn Camp 2014
Sapienza University of Rome
Via Ariosto 25, Rome, Italy
January 26^th-30^th, 2014
Deadline for intention to participate: October 20th, 2013
Application deadline: November20th, 2013

RoCKIn is short for “Robot Competitions Kick Innovation in Cognitive Systems and Robotics” and it is an EU-funded Coordination Action aiming at the promotion of research and education through competitions (http://rockinrobotchallenge.eu).

The RoCKIn Camp 2014 aims at supporting the preparation of teams to participate in the RoCKIn@Home and RoCKIn@Work challenges, the competition events that will be organized by RoCKIn in 2014 and 2015. RoCKIn@Home and RoCKIn@Work take inspiration from the corresponding RoboCup leagues, but they will focus on benchmarking robotic systems and networked robots. Both challenges require basic navigation capabilities with no restrictions on the mobile platform, advance perception, manipulation and human-robot interaction. RoCKIn@Home focuses on tasks that service robots execute in a real home environment, while the tasks to be performed in RoCKIn@Work target an industrial automation scenario.

The event is partially supported by the IEEE RAS-TEP program (IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Technical Education Program – Summer Schools).

The RoCKIn Camp 2014 will take place from 26th to 30th January in Rome and is designed as a hands-on week long school, where teams acquire new capabilities and/or improve the performance of their systems in the competition tasks. The activities planned in the first four days of the RoCKIn Camp 2014 address the following topics: the robot platform and the basic software infrastructure, perception, manipulation and human robot interaction through speech. Each topic will include introductory lectures and practical sessions. The last day will be devoted to finalizing a demonstration in the competition scenario.

Students and researchers, who have an interest in entering the RoCKIn@Home and RoCKIn@Work competitions, are invited to apply for the RoCKIn Camp 2014. We accept application in two formats:

• team applications (for teams of 2-3 people, not necessarily from the same university, but with an already established joint team). Team applicants are encouraged to bring their robot to be used in the practical activities, but this is not a requirement.
• individual applications by existing or prospective team members.

For the practical sessions, participants will be arranged into teams. Accepted applicant teams will become RoCKIn Camp 2014 teams; individual participants may be joining existing teams with the goal of creating additional collaborations and opportunities. If needed, additional teams will be created from individual applicants. Each team will be assigned a specific task, applying modules and tools presented in the lectures. The selection will be based on the team submission material and will also consider formation of new teams. The expected audience will be up to 12 teams and up to 36 participants.

All successful applicants will be offered:

• Accommodation in shared rooms (including breakfast, 6 nights)
• Lunch (5 days) and 1 social dinner
• Attendance to lectures and practical sessions

In addition, the teams of 3 people that will carry a robot to be used in the practical sessions of the Camp are entitled to receive a travel support up to 1200 Euros (per team), and the team of 3 people that plan to attend without a robot are entitled to support of 600 Euros (per team).

Important Dates

• Intention to participate: October 20th, 2013
• Application deadline: November20th, 2013
• Notification of acceptance: November 27th, 2013
• Event Date: January 26th-30th, 2014 (Rome, Italy)

Intention to participate: October 20th, 2013
To express your intention to participate send an email to alberto.pretto@dis.uniroma1.it, specifying team/individual names, affiliation and the number of team members. For further information: http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~rockin/intention

Application deadline: November, 20th 2013
Applications should be submitted via http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/rockin. The application should include a 4-page technical report with IEEE Conference Style, describing: scientific background, research objectives, expected knowledge / performance improvement, team description (including previous experience, role and competence of team members).

Notification of acceptance: November, 27th 2013
For further questions contact Alberto Pretto: alberto.pretto@dis.uniroma1.it.

More info
Download a PDF of the call here.
See coverage of the 2013 camp here.

RoCKIn

The ultimate goal is to make these competitions more applicable to current issues, and ensure that they result in meaningful improvements that can improve lives across the EU.

Building on RoboCup@Work and RoboCup@Home, RoCKIn is split into two challenges: RoCKIn@Work focuses on how robots could help European industry in the future, while RoCKIn@Home looks at developing domestic service robots.

User stories that have inspired the @Work challenge predominantly focus on logistics and assembly, such as the handling of return shipments for online retailers. For this, robots might be required to open returned parcels and sort them into broad categories for human inspection to then decide if resale is possible. Another user story for the @Work challenge is set within the construction industry: creating robots that are able to spray paint areas or walls while avoiding obstacles such as windows or doors.

For the @Home challenge, the inspiration has come from maintaining life standards for the elderly or impaired. Robots that are able to set the table, assist with bathing, or clean the kitchen or bathroom could all offer measureable improvements to life. For example, a scenario for cleaning the bathroom might involve robots using appropriate cleaners and tools to first clean flat surfaces, then as the robots become more capable, the scenario would evolve to include edges, corners, a sink, a bathtub and eventually the entire bathroom – culminating in a safe and hygienic environment for the user. The point is for these user stories to have real life aims to make the competition as engaging and relatable as possible.

What’s your opinion? Should these be the basis for the RoCKIn competitive events? Will they promote further innovation in robotics towards RoCKIn’s aims? How would you handle the scenarios, tasks and the benchmarking of the task execution on those scenarios? Give us your feedback in the comments section below.

The full report is available here and contains all the user stories, as well as an overview of other robot competitions, definitions of key RoCKIn concepts and terminology and descriptions of general scenario features. The latter section includes an outline of RoCKIn’s ‘Functional Reference Platform’ that looks to assess the performance of robots both horizontally and vertically: that is, both across certain functionalities such as grasping as well as performance in the overall task.

RoCKIn (Robots Competitions Kick Innovation in Cognitive Systems and Robotics) will build up two competition events in 2014 and 2015, allowing teams  to showcase their robotic engineering prowess through scenarios, tasks and  benchmarking that are highly relevant to real world processes and the user stories aforementioned. Running alongside these will be RoCKIn Camp and RoCKIn Field Exercise events – educational and practical sessions led by the RoCKIn consortium, with the participation of leading experts in Robotics to give teams the expertise to improve and develop their creations.

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