© Fraunhofer FKIE Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!

Robotic Competitions

Dr. Frank E. Schneider

Dep. Head of FKIE R&D military robotics

Head of the European Robotics Group

Head of the European Robot Trial (ELROB)

Head of the EU FP7 Eurathlon 2013

NATO Chair of the RTG "Standards Promoting Interoperability for Coalition UGVs“

© Fraunhofer FKIE Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!

Why do we need competitions? - Reality check!

User “needs” and reality

R&D thinking and reality

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© Fraunhofer FKIE Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!

3International Robotic Challenges

DARPA

1. Grand Challenge 2004

2. Grand Challenge 2005

3. Urban Challenge 2007

4. Robotics Challenge 2012

UK MoD

1. UK MoD Grand Challenge 2008

AU MoD (US sponsored)

1. Multi Autonomous Ground-roboticInternational Challenge (MAGIC 2010)

© Fraunhofer FKIE Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!

4European Robotic Challenges

ELROB

1., 3., 5., 7., 9. Military European Land Robot Trials 2006-2014

2., 4., 6. Civil European Land Robot Trials 2007-2011

EURATHLON (EU/EC FP7)

1. European Robotics Athlon 2013(-2015)

There is more: Robotour, Field Robot Event, Robofest, RoboCup Rescue, etc. pp.

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5European Robotic Challenge - ELROB

ELROB

1., 3., 5., 7., 9. Military European Land Robot Trials 2006-2014

2., 4., 6. Civil European Land Robot Trials 2007-2011

© Fraunhofer FKIE Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!

What is ELROB? – A Trial!

Demonstrate and compare the capabilities of unmanned systems in realistic scenarios and terrains.

Trials are close to today’s typical deployment scenarios.

Scenarios are developed in co-operation with/by the users.

Target audience: emergency services, border patrol, special forces, police, fire brigades, civil protection agencies and military

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© Fraunhofer FKIE Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!

Aims of ELROB

Test and compare available robot platforms and software in “true” outdoor / off-road environments

under difficult constraints

(bad) weather

day and night

mostly no radio/GPS reception

limited trial time

introduce standards into the field of competitors

We use the ELROB to guide R&D into the right direction!

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© Fraunhofer FKIE Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!

8European Robotics Athlon

EURATHLON (EU/EC FP7)

1. European Robotics Athlon 2013(-2015)

© Fraunhofer FKIE Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!

What is Eurathlon? – An attempt!

Provide real-world robotics challenges that will test the intelligence and autonomy of outdoor robots in demanding mock disaster-response scenarios.

2013: Land systems, 2014 Sea systems and 2015 Land/Sea/Air combined

Additional workshops

Possible target audience: emergency services, fire brigades, and civil protection agencies

Eurathlon is a Coordination and Support action!

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© Fraunhofer FKIE Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!

Aims of Eurathlon

Speed-up the progress towards practical, useable real-world intelligent autonomous robots, through competitions

Identify possible benchmarks

Involve the public (dissemination)

Generate data-sets

Look on standards

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© Fraunhofer FKIE Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!Right to use and protected according to DIN 34 / ISO 16016 / VG 95034!

“European” Challenges (FP7 and H2020)This is slide is meant to be provocative! It is not explicitly refering to EURATHLON!

There is a vast number of (uncorrelated) projects

RockIn

Eurathlon

EuRoC

ICARUS, DARIUS

….

euRobotics AISBL (EURON, EUROP), EUCog, euROBOTICS, ECHORD

The process of building a consortium and writing a proposal are nebulous

The overall “goals” seem very vague

The involvement of real users is often weak

The involvement of industry gives the impression of (hidden) subvention

The allowed level of abstraction from the real world is often to large

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Lessons (to be) learned?

1. Real world oriented competitions

• No serious abstractions from real deployment scenario

2. Clear and straight rules, no hidden agendas, one addressee

3. Reward for the teams

• Prize money

• R&D grants

• Student support

4. Sponsoring

5. Standardization

• Hardware & Software

• Common Platforms and Payload-Carriers

• Common Shared Datasets (CSDS)

6. Stringent involvement of users and industry

7. Clear way ahead, What will be done with & who will be using the results?

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13Questions ?

ELROBwww.elrob.org