Towards Remote Robotic Competitions: An Internet-Connected Task Board and Dashboard

TL;DR

This paper discusses the design of an electronic task board, the strategies implemented by the top-performing teams and compares their results with a benchmark solution to the presented task board.

Abstract

In this work we present a platform to assess robot platform skills using an internet-of-things (IoT) task board device to aggregate performances across remote sites. We demonstrate a concept for a modular, scale-able device and web dashboard enabling remote competitions as an alternative to in-person robot competitions. We share data from nine robot platforms located across four continents in three manipulation task categories of object localization, object insertion, and component disassembly through an organized international robot competition - the Robothon Grand Challenge. This paper discusses the design of an electronic task board, the strategies implemented by the top-performing teams and compares their results with a benchmark solution to the presented task board. Through this platform, we demonstrate fully remote, online competitions can generate innovative robotic solutions and tested a tool for measuring remote performances. Using the open-sourced task board code and design files, the reader can reproduce the benchmark solution or configure the platform for their own use case and share their results transparently without transporting their robot platform.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Developed IoT task board and web dashboard used for the competition monitoring. The task board integrates five tasks of the categories object localization, object insertion and component disassembly with increasing difficulty: Button Push (1), Key Switch (2), Ethernet Port (3), Battery Removal (4), Battery Recycling (5). An internet dashboard tracks each task board and allows performance data to be remotely viewed in near real-time (5 second publishing rate) and historical data downloaded by the public.
• Figure 2: Internet-of-things task board system architecture and connection diagram with a robot platform under test and web dashboard. The on-board microcontroller enforces competition rules and tracks task completion in miliseconds and automatically publishes results to a web dashboard.
• Figure 3: Designed task board execution protocol and task time measurements. Each successfully completed task was confirmed by the on-board microcontroller monitoring an electrical circuit and timestamp recorded. Teams were permitted to complete tasks in their preferred order. Individual task times are computed by the different between successive timestamps.
• Figure 4: Hardware setup of the benchmark solution with the implemented environment model for computing feasible motion plans.
• Figure 5: Robothon 2021 competition teams representing nine unique robot platforms from across four continents were connected via the IoT task board as they completed their automated solutions over the 4-week development period in a completely remote robot competition. Final presentations were conducted with the competition organizers over video conference.