Robot Contests as a Catalyst for Robotics Science

Abstract

Robot contests serve as catalysts for scientific advancement and innovation in robotics. While traditional robotics research focuses mainly on subsystem optimization or theoretical analysis and design, robot contests provide a crucial platform for benchmarking complete robot systems by encouraging integrated system development and novel solutions to realistic problems common to all participants. This article explains how robot competitions and challenges designed according to best practices foster progress across various domains. It highlights their significant impact on education, including their promotion of teamwork and problem-solving skills, and their role in technology transfer, exemplified by successful spin-off companies. Popular robot contests based on more traditional approaches are surveyed as sources of a diversity of approaches to scoring performance and the development of good practices. Alternative concepts, such as cooperative competitions to foster transferability across robotic platforms and tasks as well as performance assessments using benchmarking metrics, are introduced in the last part of the article.