On a rainy Saturday in October the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) from the DC region and the University of Maryland conducted the second annual Autonomous Robot Speedway Competition (ARSC). See the video on the event.

The objective of the competition was to race around an track which was outlined with bright orange cones.  Since it was raining, they moved indoors, and had the robots circle the track twice. Here are the rules.

There were eleven entries in the competition, all from the University of Maryland.  Six finished the course.  Four did it without touching any cones.  The winning teams completed the course very quickly.  I wonder if Post 1010 could do better?

Each team was to make a poster to document their effort. Click on the pictures to read the detail.

The robots were all very similar. They all came out of the University of Maryland classes and clubs and their resources.  You can see some interesting results by viewing the videos -- Runs1 and Runs2.

Here are some pictures of the robots. Click on the pictures to enlarge it.

 
     Laser Scanner             Winner                 Second Place           Simple Bot

A few more pictures...