Wednesday, July 22, 1992 - The Michigan Daily Summer Weekly - 9
'U' robot wins sweet victory
by Adam Hundley
A smart robot developed by Uni-
versity researchers and graduate stu-
dents won first place in the "Artificial
Intelligence Robotics Competition"
held July 14-16 in San Jose, Calif.
The robot, a Cybermotion K2A
model named CARMEL, competed
againstrobots fromStanford, Carnegie-
Mellon and nine other universities and
corporate teams. The competition was
sponsored by the American Associa-
tion for Artificial Intelligence.
Team leaders said the highlight of
the week was the second stage of the
competition, called "Exploration in a
Natural Environment." The competi-
tion required robots to find 10 objects
within a 20 minute period.
"We crushed them," graduate stu-
dentMarc Hubersaidinapressrelease.
"We were the only team to find all 10
objects and we did itin just9.5minutes.
Carnegie-Mellon was our closest com-
petition - they found nine of the ob-
jects, but it took them 28 minutes."
Students and researchers said the
most valuable lesson they learned was
how to apply their engineering knowl-
edge to "real-life" problems and chal-
lenges.
"It requires integrated team prob-
lem-solving andalevelofperformance
thatyoujustcan'tduplicateintheclass-
room," faculty advisor Terry
Weymouth said.
The robots had to avoid stationary
obstacles and moving humans while
exploring a 40-foot-by-80-foot area in
the first stage of the competition, "Ro-
bots Roaming in a Natural Environ-
ment."
In the finalstage of the competition,
"Directed Search in aNatural Environ-
ment," each robot had to find three
objects in a particular order specified
by the judges.
CARMEL, whichmovesatamaxi-
mum speed of about 2.5 feet per sec-
ond, uses 24 ultrasonic sensors to de-
tect and avoid collisions.
Theavoidancesystemwasdesigned
by assistant research scientist Johann
Borenstein and professor of mechani-
cal engineering and applied mechanics
Yoram Koren.
The Michigan entry and other ro-
bots - Archi, Buzz, Flakey, Soda-
Pup, Spider, Flash, and others - com-
peted for points scored on a series of
specific tasks. Each robot had to pass
inspection and be certified as "house-
broken" by a team of judges before
competing.
Stanford's entry finished in second
place andCarnegie-Mellonplacedthird.
The University team received no
prizes for their victory except a"hearty
slap on the back" and recognition from I
their colleagues in the artificial intelli-
gence community, University robotics
teamleader and graduate student David
Kortenkamp said in a press release.
Weymouth agreed, "The real prize
is the enthusiasm and excitement gen-
erated by the students."
Team leaders and researchers said
they were pleased that they outper-
formed such prestigious programs as
Stanford Research International.
"The students know they are com-
peting against the best university teams
in the world," Weymouth said.
To meet the requirements of the
competition, University students de-
veloped new software and vision rou-
tines for the Cybermotion K2A model.
The robot, funded by the U.S. De-
partnent of Energy, the American As-
sociation for Artificial Intelligence and
the University's College of Engineer-
ing, took five years to develop. '.'
CARMEL included an on-board
computer, video camera, synthesized NEWS AND INFORMATION SERVICES
speech, and the ultrasonic avoidance 'U' robot CARMEL won first place with its on-board computer, video
sensing system. camera, synthesized speech, and ultrasonic avoidance sensing system.
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