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"In the live final of the competition, each robot will have to navigate an arena littered with obstacles and identify, pick up and move objects to designated locations in the shortest time possible," a spokesperson for the organiser said. In robotics terms, that's navigation, obstacle avoidance and object handling.
That final will be held at Swinburne University of Technology's Hawthorn campus on September 21.
To qualify for the final, teams must complete four milestone tasks, of which two remain. They are being assisted my engineers from National Instruments (NI), which has also provided each team with a $27,000 development kit, which it can keep providing it completes the competition.
"The competition is an exciting platform both for engineering students to showcase their creative and technical skills as they delve into the world of robotics, and for universities to build their position in this important space," said Matej Krajnc, managing director of National Instruments Oceania.
"From mining to defence, robotics has become integral to a vast number of advanced applications where performance, precision, safety and reliability are of the highest priority. We are seeing significant growth in demand as well as very innovative approaches to challenging applications in these areas."
There's a first prize of $3000, $1500 for the runner-up, and a $500 prize for "the most aesthetically pleasing robot."
