IEEE/NIST  Virtual Manufacturing Automation Competition

This event simulates the buffer zone of a manufacturing plant.

Participants will utilize multiple simulated forklifts (simulated in USARSim, http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/usarsim) to move pallets from a loading zone into a sorted storage area. This event is intended to showcase multi-vehicle cooperation, and autonomous mobility in constricted spaces. The event will be run with no human intervention and remote participation will be possible. This year's competition will include the following scenario: A team of forklifts will be tasked with clearing out the buffer zone. The forklifts will be required to dock with and lift pallets in an unstructured environment, determine their destination (through an RFID tag), and place them in the proper storage area. Challenges will include fine autonomous vehicle control, path planning, traffic management, and box placement planning.

The US competition will be held at the NIST campus in Gaithersburg MD (tentative dates are March 25th and 26th, 2009). NIST will be administering this competition that will provide an opportunity for well qualified teams to try their algorithms on actual robotic platforms.

The objective of the workshops is to provide the participants with the necessary knowledge needed to join the robotics and automation research community in the area of manufacturing automation and they will be provided with all relevant software. A full day tutorial will take place at each of the following two venues to introduce and discuss the simulation platforms and other associated details:

             Georgia Institute of Technology: December 4th 2008

             University of California, Merced: December 11th 2008

Additional information is available from the VMAC website at http://vmac.hood.edu/ and from the USASim website at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/usarsim and MOAST website at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/moast.