from 15-17 October 2024
euROBIN Manipulation Skill Versatility Challenge
at IROS 2024 in Abu Dhabi, UAE
"A decentralized event followed by a three-day on-site competition to showcase autonomous manipulation skills of state-of-the-art robot platforms for the circular economy."
Remote Phase Results
Seven teams have completed their 30-day remote development period with over 500 recorded task board trial attempts and three teams have emerged with valid solutions to the challenge task board. See their contributed robot platform and documentation below:
RoboPig, Germany: Presentation Video | Github
Platonics, The Netherlands: Presentation Video | Github
DLRG, China: Presentation Video | Github
In the next on-site phase, the teams will gather at the IROS 2024 conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE and present their robot solutions using a Franka Emika Panda and Universal Robots UR10e platform provided by TUM/MIRMI to one another and the expert jury in a competition format.
Why are versatile skills important in robotics?
Robotics and automation promise to alleviate repetitive, dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks but often require an expertly engineered deployment to operate in the real-world. Versatile skills allow machines to operate autonomously and for longer periods allowing them to adapt to unforeseen situations which are currently resolved with direct human assistance or teleoperation. If we can program robots to solve problems by leveraging their previous experience, they can operate more independently and potentially be more effective. What should the core curriculum for robots to be successful in the real-world? This is what this event seeks to find out.
Roboticists are challenged to develop re-usable manipulation skills to solve tasks in the disassembly of electronic waste. Core manipulation skills are learned with the competition task board then teams will apply those skills to novel objects to demonstrate the versatility of their robot skills.
The Motivation: Electronic Waste
More e-waste is generated than is collected in every part of the world. This results in many precious and toxic materials entering landfills while demand for electronic devices continues to grow. If collected electronic waste can be sorted and recycled, then we can reduce the need to mine minerals and stimulate a circular economy. Robots can play a major part in the sorting and disassembly of electronic components. Their impact can be multiplied by reducing the time to deploy a robotic solution and by reducing the complexity to operate and maintain them.
Learn about how e-waste is handled in your region on the e-waste monitor.
"We challenge the robotics community to develop versatile, re-usable robotic skills with our competition task board to accelerate the automation of manual tasks in the processing of electronic waste to promote the circular economy."
The Participant Journey
Team Selection & Shipment
Competition Digital Kickoff
Development Period
Qualification Submission
Compete at IROS
Award Ceremony
"The goal of this event is to bring leaders and rising starts in robot manipulation together to benchmark automation skills and share knowledge from across the globe."
Event Timeline
- 07.06.2024 Call for Team Applications opens, applications accepted until Friday, 19.07.2024
- 31.07.2024 Notification of Acceptance and Shipment of Task Boards to Teams
- 14.08.2024 28.08.24 Competition Kickoff Meeting (Video Conference Call)
- 14.08,2024-15.09.2024 28.08.24-28.09.24 Teams' Development Period (4-weeks at team's own site with the Competition Task Board)
- 15.09.2024 28.09.24 Teams’ Deliverables Deadline (Repository, Presentation Video, Evidence Video)
- 14.10.2024-17.10.2024 Teams' Conference Arrival, Setup Robot Platforms (Monday, Oct 14), Fine Tune Demos (Oct 15-17)
- 17.10.2024 Final Presentations to Expert Jury and Conference Attendees, Decision Meeting, Award Ceremony
The Competition Task Board
Autonomously complete all tasks on the competition task board within 10 minutes. The task board is designed to resemble an electrical circuit inspection use case using a multimeter probe.
Task 1 (Skill: Localizing): Identify and localize the task board placed in a random position on a flat table. Confirm by pressing the blue button.
Task 2 (Skill: Reading): Read two values (one fixed and the other random) on the LED screen and set the slider value to match each one.
Task 3 (Skill: Inserting): Pick up the probe plug from the starting port and insert it into the testing port.
Task 4 (Skill: Opening/Probing): Open the hinged door to access the target circuit and probe the terminal block to perform a continuity test.
Task 5 (Skill: Wrapping): Wrap the probe cable around the two posts and then stow the probe tip.
Teams end the timed trial by pressing the red button with their robot on the task board. Teams will be evaluated on the speed of their execution as recorded by the clock on the task board and confirmed by the Expert Jury.
Teams will also be assessed by their ability to transfer skills from the task board to an electronic device of their choice in the Bring-your-own-device "BYOD" transferability challenge. Example demonstrations may include opening device battery compartment covers, performing a continuity test on a printed circuit board, etc.
How you will be evaluated...
All selected teams will receive a competition task board shipped to them in the mail to participate in the first of two phases of the event with their own robot platform.
1st Evaluation Phase (Remote): Evaluations will be conducted over Zoom video conference.
Task Board Automated Solution, Factors: Execution Speed, Robustness, Documentation. Demonstrations on the task board will be monitored and recorded over our IoT web dashboard. To ensure your work is counted, please keep your task board plugged in and connected to WiFi when in use.
BYOD Transferability Demo, Factors: Method of Transferring Skills, Relevance to Sustainability Goals
Teams will be required to validate their Task Board Automated Solution and present their BYOD Transferability Demo to the Expert Jury on their own robot platform or one provided by the competition organizers at the IROS conference center.
2nd Evaluation Phase (On-Site): Evaluations will be done live at the conference hall in Abu Dhabi.
Prizes: The top three teams as determined by the Expert Jury will be recognized during the award ceremony at the IROS 2024 conference in Abu Dhabi. All participants will receive a certificate of participation.
"Our collective goal is to demonstrate the state-of-the-art in robot manipulation skills, identify interesting areas of research, and measure the performance gap between robots and humans."
The Expert Jury
Danica Kragic Jensfelt
KTH - Royal Institute of Technology
Ales Ude
Jožef Stefan Institute
Alin Albu-Schäffer
Deutschland für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Fabio Bonsignorio
University of Zagreb
Fares Abu-Dakka
New York University Abu Dhabi
Noémie Jaquier
KTH - Royal Institute of Technology
Organizers
Peter So
Technical University of Munich
Abdalla Swikir
Technical University of Munich
Sami Haddadin
Technical University of Munich
Local Competition Chair:
Judhi Prasetyo
Middlesex University Dubai
Sponsors
The Venue
Abu Dhabi National Exhibbition Centre (ADNEC)
Al Khaleej Al Arabi St - Al Rawdah - Al Ma'arid - Abu Dhabi
The multi-award winning Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) is the largest exhibition venue in the Middle East, fully interconnected within the hearth of Abu Dhabi. Featuring a unique architectural design, ADNEC offers one of the world's most accessible and flexible event spaces.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Who can apply?
A: All interested roboticists over 18 are encouraged to apply. We welcome equally university and private teams to submit an application. Due to the distributed nature of our event, teams must provide their own robot platform. Each team application is reviewed by our Grand Challenge Jury.
Q: How to apply?
A: Interested teams can apply using the Call for Teams Google Form. Each valid submission includes:
Your name & a short CV (incl. photo) of each team member (min 2, max 4 team members per team),
A 1-page describing your team’s motivation for participating in this event and experience with your robot platform,
A picture of the robot system,
A short video about your previous work.
Q: Can one apply alone?
A: No, we only accept applications from teams of two to four people.
Q: When is the application deadline?
A: Applications will be accepted until July 19, 2024, 23:59 AoE. Selected teams will be notified at the beginning of August 2024.
Q: How to apply? Is there an application fee to participate in MSVC?
A: No, there is no application fee for the Manipulation Skill Versatility Challenge. However, finalists invited to present their solutions at IROS must register for the conference as regular attendees.
copyright: euROBIN
What is euROBIN?
As robots are entering unstructured environments with a large variety of tasks, they will need to quickly acquire new abilities to solve them.
Humans do so very effectively through a variety of methods of knowledge transfer – demonstration, verbal explanation, writing, the Internet.
In robotics, enabling the transfer of skills and software between robots, tasks, research groups, and application domains will be a game changer for scaling up the robot abilities.
euROBIN is a sustainable network of excellence to foster exchange and inclusion. Software, data and knowledge will be exchanged over the EuroCore repository, designed to become a central platform for robotics in Europe.
The vision of euROBIN is a European ecosystem of robots that share their data and knowledge and exploit their diversity to jointly learn to perform the endless variety of tasks in human environments.
Learn more at the official euROBIN website:
Call for Teams is NOW CLOSED
Deadline July 19, 2024 23:59 AoE
Call for Equipment Sponsor
We are seeking an equipment sponsor for a Universal Robot manipulator for our vetted teams on-site during the conference. Write peter.so@tum.de to learn about our sponsorship offerings.
Still have questions?
Do you want to become an equipment or prize sponsor?
Send a message to peter.so@tum.de