DEFCONBOTS - An Autonomous Robotics Competition at DEFCON

[jotux]

Contest organizer here (Fryguy[1] is the other one). When we were in college we competed at defconbots in 2007 and 2008. The contest ended in 2009 but we continued it at RoboGames (the event at RoboGames was called "Robot Shooting Gallery") from 2009 until 2013.

We really love robotics and wanted to bring the contest back but wanted it to be more programmer-friendly. We're hoping that a simple reference design and less mechanically-challenging contest will get more CS folks interested and participating.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=fryguy

[alvarop]

Thanks for organizing! I did it back in DEFCON 14 and had a blast!

Where's a good place to discuss/ask questions about the rules?

EDIT: Just found https://github.com/Defconbots/2014_Competition_Rules/issues

[droopybuns]

2014 is the year Defcon abandons all pretenses that they were not a fed/military recruiting event.

[fryguy]

I've never been on the other side of a conspiracy theory. This is interesting.

[gamerdonkey]

Please explain this view. I fail to see how a robotics competition means federal recruiting.

[etanazir]

Will al-Qada field a team; or bring any hot chicks in burkas to seduce the winners?

[yankoff]

Awesome! That goes really well with the upcoming course on Controlling Mobile Robots I was gonna take https://www.coursera.org/course/conrob

[legogt]

Magnus's Finite Automata course was one of my favorites at GaTech and I'm sure you won't be disappointed with his Coursera offering.

Anyone in the Santa Monica/LA area want to take a stab at this competition?

[johnmurch]

"at moving and illuminated targets" - anyone know what size they might be?

[whosbein]

Unless I missed something, I believe they're all ping-pong balls which are listed at 40mm in diameter.

[epoxyhockey]

This sounds like fun. Perhaps Gen. Alexander could be invited to MC the event.

[X-Istence]

I'm looking forward to seeing this being submitted as a contest/event :-). It also reminds me I need to update the site!

[etanazir]

Show me your security credentials and I might compete in a secret event; but not sharing my thoughts with every body.

[jotux]

Secret?

[PaulSec]

Seems so much fun. What would be the Hackers News's features for this robot ? :)

[Qworg]

Would people who do this professionally be part of the general competition?

[jotux]

There is no ban on computer vision professionals. I'm sure we'll have at least a few competing.

[bergie3000]

Where will the contest take place?