[JdeRobot] The IROS 2016 Autonomous Drone Racing

[JoseMaria Cañas Plaza]

Hi,

take a look at this championship inside the robotics conference IROS
this year [2]. It is about autonomous drone programming, similar to
the championship we organized a few weeks ago [1], but with real
physical drones.

"Participants will bring their own flying robots in Mos Espa Daejeon
Arena and be asked to fly them autonomously through designated tracks
in the circuit. The technical challenges combine the time optimal path
planning for drones, flight and tracking control, obstacle detection,
localization, and fault detection and recovery. Two racing times will
be recorded and scored by its best flight time through the start and
the finish line."

It remarks the growing interest in autonomous drone navigation and we
can get some ideas for the upcoming "ProgramaRobot - II" championship
:-).

Cheers,

JoseMaria
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd2nhOx1tqI
[2] http://ris.skku.edu/home/iros2016racing.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: IROS2016 <sec en iros2016.org>
Date: Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 11:56 AM
Subject: [robotics-worldwide] [meetings] 1st CALL FOR PARTICIPATION:
IROS 2016 Autonomous Drone Racing in Mos Espa Daejeon Arena
To: robotics-worldwide en usc.edu


Dear Colleagues,

IROS 2016 calls for participations to Autonomous Drone Racing Competition.
(https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__ris.skku.edu_home_iros2016racing.html&d=CwICAg&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=0w3solp5fswiyWF2RL6rSs8MCeFamFEPafDTOhgTfYI&m=OnysvwqTz2i5wnfmqGFZ0hcIoTtnv1XRcaTNrHCdgmQ&s=YuCN-j-QmOhhQpP0qnHTeLW_FuS5dUHDwtkmf4jQGzY&e=
)

Drone racing is getting popular as a new-generation hobby and also as a
rising professional racing sport. Recent drone racing games show the agility
of the drone flying through a zigzaging, narrow, confined racing circuit. An
onboard camera and the head-mount display goggle provides pilots First
Person View (FPV) and pilots show their amazing control techniques during
the racing. In contrast, autonomous drone flight through such a daring
environment at high speed still remains as a difficult challenge.
Nonetheless, drones that can negotiate with complex surroundings can be not
only as a sport but a killer app for future drone applications, where drones
can fly through obstacles and search for survivors in a scene of accident
and more.

The IROS 2016 Autonomous Drone Racing in Mos Espa Daejeon Arena (Racing) is
a technical challenge sponsored by Korea Ministry of Trade, Industry and
Energy aimed to provide worldwide robotic researchers a technology showroom
for autonomous flight and to promote solutions for agile autonomous flight
of drones in daring environments. Participants will bring their own flying
robots in Mos Espa Daejeon Arena and be asked to fly them autonomously
through designated tracks in the circuit. The technical challenges combine
the time optimal path planning for drones, flight and tracking control,
obstacle detection, localization, and fault detection and recovery. Two
racing times will be recorded and scored by its best flight time through the
start and the finish line. Depending on the number of participants, Racing
will be divided into two divisions; one is the onboard computing (Division
A) and the other is the remote computing (Division B). If the number of the
participants small in Division A, divisions will be ignored and a scoring
metric will be used to encourage onboard processing systems. See below for
the details of Racing.

Prospective participants must submit the registration form (Form A,
available online) via email to sec en iros2016.org with the title of "Drone
Racing Registration: Your team name." Registered teams are eligible for
travel grant if submitted the travel grant application form (Form B,
available online) by 08/01/2016 to sec en iros2016.org with the title of "Drone
Racing Travel Grant Application: Your team name". After evaluation of the
application, $2000 will be granted to, at most, 10 teams from North and
South America, and EU, $1000 to maximum 5 teams from Asia, and $500 to
maximum 5 teams from Korea. Successfully registered teams must submit
promotion materials to the organizers via email by 10/01/2016.

Timeline:
Deadline for registration to Racing (registration form): 05/10/2016
Division announcement: 05/15/2016
Travel grant application due (grant application form): 08/01/2016
Notification to travel grant recipients: 08/15/2016
Racing promotion material submission: 10/01/2016
Orientation: 10/10/2016
Dry-run: 10/11/2016
Main event: 10/12/2016
Award luncheon: 10/13/2016
Demonstration to public (top rankers, tentative): 10/14/2016
(Detailed timeline is subject to change and will be posted on the web as
well as informed by the registered email.)

Description of Racing:
The Racing will be held in an indoor track, which contains five testing
elements; high speed flight on a straight path, sharp turns, horizontal
zig-zag path, spiral upward path, and a dynamic obstacle. The detail CAD
file of the track will be available online at
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__ris.skku.edu_home_iros2016racing.html&d=CwICAg&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=0w3solp5fswiyWF2RL6rSs8MCeFamFEPafDTOhgTfYI&m=OnysvwqTz2i5wnfmqGFZ0hcIoTtnv1XRcaTNrHCdgmQ&s=YuCN-j-QmOhhQpP0qnHTeLW_FuS5dUHDwtkmf4jQGzY&e=
. To facilitate the
localization, some track gates will have QR codes (version 1: 21x21, printed
size: 25cm x 25cm) on the boundary. The location of each QR code will be
denoted in the CAD file. The map is subject to minor change during
construction, and the participating team is highly recommended to detect the
obstacle in situ, not blindly rely on the CAD drawing. Each team has two
trials in the same track. In case of failures such as missing a gate,
falling down, caught on the safety net, or other incidents, the team loses
its turn and its time record will be recorded as 'N/A'. The winner will be
determined by the best time record. If the best time records are the same
among multiple teams, the average time and the number of successful races
will be used for the tiebreaker.

Scoring metric for onboard computing: In case of a small number of
participants to Division A, instead of dividing groups, all teams compete
one another. However, teams with onboard computing system will have a time
advantage to compensate the computing power limitation. The detail scoring
system will be announced before the competition.

Drone Technical Restriction:
The robot size is limited to be 1m x 1m x 1m with all of components fully
extended. There is no type limitation of the drone; fixed wing, helicopter,
quadrotor, or any type of flying robots that fit in the size limitation can
be used. The drone is highly recommended to be electrically powered as the
drone is operated indoor with limited ventilation. Any other
propulsion/power source should be notified when registering and the
competition committee will review the case to accept the team or not. Also,
the competition committee reserves the right to allow the entrance of the
competition based on the safety of the drone based on their construction,
propulsion, operating conditions or more.

The competition begins by placing the drone at the take-off point with
onboard system turned on, but the propulsion system not running. Once the
team declares "start", the drone may not be intervened by the team members
using a controller or a ground monitoring system until it completes the
competition by landing at the designated point. In other words, the drone
must be completely autonomous without any form of human intervention during
the trial. The team may choose to take over the drone in case of emergency,
but it will forfeit the trial.

The team will be given in total of twenty minutes for one trial. The drone
should be turned on and finish one trial by landing during this time. If the
given time of twenty minutes passes, the team will be considered to spend
one trial.

The drone can be communicated with Wifi or any commercially available
communication service, complying with Korean domestic law on the use of
radiowave. The committee highly recommends the use of WiFi. GPS will be
severely limited, if not completely unavailable, due to the indoor
environment.

The drone is allowed to have any types of sensors as long as they are
considered safe to nearby spectators and complying with general regulations
on consumer electronics. Sensors may include vision (visible/IR), laser,
radar, ultrasound or more. However, these sensors should not make any
physical contact or damage of the obstacles.

Prizes:
The best teams will receive monetary prizes. All monetary prizes are
conditional on eligible teams completing the race. Prize money will be
announced later along with sponsoring organization(s).

Organizers:
Hyungpil Moon, Sungkyunkwan University [hyungpil en me.skku.ac.kr]
Hyunchul Shim, KAIST [hcshim en kaist.ac.kr]

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-- 
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
http://gsyc.urjc.es/jmplaza