Anatomy of an International Robotic Competition: Mercury Remote Robot Challenge
Carl D. Latino, Wira D. Mulia, Emilio Gabino · 2014
The Remote Robot Challenge is an annual interscholastic, international competition. It was introduced by the Oklahoma State University-Stillwater Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in April 2010. requires the design and construction of a robot system capable of negotiating a maze and performing a mission. This must all be done while the operator and robot are separated by a distance of over 50 miles. This type of robot system has the advantage over shorter range remote systems that it can be operated from practically anywhere in the world. Long range communications requires that the designed system has the ability to transmit and receive commands, data and video information using an Internet link. We will outline the basic necessary subsystems and discuss our motivation for creating “another” robotic competition. Hosting the Remote Robot Challenge has brought many benefits to our school. The challenge has expanded interest in robotics and led to the creation of “Mercury Robotics”, a new and very popular interdisciplinary university organization. In this paper we describe some of the challenges to be met by the participants of Mercury. We will also compares and contrast Mercury to NATCAR, another interesting robotic competition. In 2013 a new venue was added at UPAEP in Puebla Mexico doubling the potential number of robots that can be handled at a event. Other schools have shown interest in hosting a similar event. Would your group be interested in such an undertaking?