What is the ERL Service Robots tournament?

We’re incredibly excited to announce the call for loan of three TIAGo Steel robots to teams who want to enter the ERL Service Robots 2017 tournament. We will also give one additional robot for free to the team we believe shows exceptional quality of expertise and degree of innovation in their application paper and simulation test.

The deadline for applicaTIAGo Robot is a mobile manipulator robot developed by PAL Roboticstions is 30 June, and the teams to be granted loan equipment will be announced on PAL Robotics’ website by the end of the month. The robots will be available for collection by mid-July 2017 and will cost €650 per month, plus tax.

If you have any questions about the application process, terms and conditions or capabilities of TIAGo, please email: tiago@pal-robotics.com

The ERL Service Robots tournament is one of three organized by the European Robotics League (ERL) to address the societal challenge of an aging population, strengthen the European robotics industry and push the ‘state of the art’ in autonomous systems for emergency response.

The tournament is made up of a series of competitions that take place across Europe. One competition will be organized by us, held in Barcelona during European Robotics Week, 20-26 November 2017. If any of the teams would like to compete in this tournament, we will provide a free TIAGo for them to use during the competition.

What is the application process?

Potential teams must send an application paper to tiago@pal-robotics.com (PDF preferred) by 30 June 2017. The paper must contain the following:

  • Team leader’s contact information. For university teams, contact information of an academic supervisor should also be provided.
  • CVs (max. 1 page) for each team member.
  • Financial Summary (max. 1 page on income and expenditure).
  • Executive Summary (max. 1 page).
  • Description of the motivations leading the team to ask for the loan.
  • Max 2 page description of the team’s specialties and expertise (past achievements, research projects, etc.), and/or videos of the team’s achievements (using real robots or simulators).
  • Details of which scenarios the team plans to participate in, how they will complete the different tasks and the intended algorithms that will be used.

What is the judging criteria?

The teams will be selected based on the quality of their application paper (quality and degree of innovation of the proposed algorithms, expertise of the teams, etc.). Teams must demonstrate a minimum experience with ROS middleware, and might also be asked to complete a simple simulation test with TIAGo.

We especially encourages teams with previous experience in robotics to apply. These teams will have to prove their capabilities in autonomous navigation and control.

Why TIAGo?

TIAGo Robot with its base

TIAGo Steel is a mobile-manipulator with a 54 cm footprint, 3kg payload arm and 14 degrees of freedom (DoF). The platform uses standard open interfaces (ROS), has one day endurance, a high degree of modular flexibility and can be programmed remotely.

We’re offering this platform because its autonomous navigation, manipulation and perception abilities make it perfect for research into new robotic applications in the service sector. As it is a robust and reliable platform, we hope teams will be able to focus on the robot’s cognition, intelligence and autonomy, rather than engineering issues.

For full specifications, please email tiago@pal-robotics.com.

 

What are the conditions of the loan?

Rent will be €650 euros a month, excluding taxes, and the rental fee will be taken off the cost of a new TIAGo Steel (€49.900) if the teams wish to buy the platform at the end of the project. PAL Robotics will also provide a TIAGo to the four competing teams at the local Barcelona ERL Service Robots tournament, to prevent expenses and issues that might arise during transportation.  

Once the team has been selected, a loan contract will be signed stipulating that the end-user will accept full responsibility for returning the items in good condition at the end of the competition, or upon the request of PAL Robotics. As a result, it is mandatory that the end-user obtains insurance to cover damage or loss of the equipment.

Furthermore, the end-user commits to rent the robot for at least three months and to participate in the ERL Service Robots tournament in Barcelona.

All that’s left to say is… good luck!

If you have any questions, visit PAL Robotics’ website and discover the answer to all your doubt!