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[DPRG] On contests
Subject: [DPRG] On contests
From: dpa
dpa at io.isem.smu.edu
Date: Sun Jun 3 22:34:24 CDT 2007
Howdy
I have to second Tom's comments below, and by coincidence of the
Great Strange Attractor, Tom was the judge at the 2001 SRS Robothon
that awarded me the nice wooden and brass plaque hanging on my shop
wall that I mentioned in a previous post.
Well, maybe not so surprising, as hobby robotics (actually Tom is
a professional!) is a small world, after all.
I would like to comment on just one of Pete's observations, but
they all need contemplating, and Pete speaks with considerable
authority and experience (and patience and long-suffering) on
the subject. Pete writes:
> On one side a once a year contest is more manageable by the volunteers
> On the otherside, you only get to run your robot once a year.
and this goes directly to my original inquiry. I run my robots a lot,
and especially the outdoor robot, jBot, gets a lot of runtime around
SMU, around my neighborhood, and around my folks cabin in the Colorado
Rockies. Same thing with the two-wheel balancing robot.
I enjoy it. I "play" with my robots. A lot. It's why I build them.
Compared to the time I spend playing with my robots, the contests, whether
once a year or every month, are not really very significant. I think
of the contests as an opportunity to show others what I've done. But I
don't build robots for the contests, or only run the robots at contest
time.
Now Pete's experience is quite different (correct me if I'm wrong here,
Pete). He is a master at minisumo. That is a type of robotics that
really requires a contest and other contestants. So for minisumo
builders, the more contests the better, as long as you don't burn out
the volunteers. I imagine I'd go crazy waiting to test myself and
my robots just once a year. I can see the problem with that.
There are lots of different types of robotics, and I'm sure lots we've
never dreamed of. When I first showed up at the SRS Robothon with the
nBot two wheel balancing robot, there were no contests designed for it.
So I entered it in the generic "floor exercises" which is (was?) largely
a show-and-tell style event, which was fine with me. The point being,
I would never have developed that robot if the goal was defined by some
particular contest. A couple of years later I was invited back to
participate on a panel of balancing robots; I think there were five
or six by then. And so the hobby advances.
Like with Chris' vision-based navigation experiments, part of the
excitement is in doing something new and that, by definition, is
probably not going to fit within the framework of an existing contest.
Dr. Huff and his students were working on GPS robo-navigation long before
the DPRG put together the Long Haul competition. But I know others who,
as Kip correctly observes, only work on robots the week before (perhaps
the DAY before) the contest. So, for those folks, no contests means
no robots.
So I guess the question becomes, for whom are the contests designed?
I suppose there is some happy medium. From where I sit, we have too
many contests for the pool of manpower available and willing.
best regards,
dpa
> Pete,
> Your comments were so well 'put.' If anybody understands the many
> hours that it takes to run a contest, or series of contests, it is you. You
> have spent more time organizing the SRS Robothons than anyone else I know.
> Keep up with your 'random thoughts.' People ned to be aware of the whole
> sphere of experimental robotics.
> Tom Carroll
>
>
> Subject: Re: [DPRG] On contests
>
>
> Contests are a double edge sword
>
> On one side they provide a specific objective for the builder to avhieve.
> One the otherside, the different contests out there represent a tiny
> portion of all the different types of robotics
> which can divert people away from these areas.
>
> On side robots can be extremely expensive, but very cool.
> On the other side, robots can be very inexpensive, but less functional.
>
> On one side having public contests catches the attention of new people to
> see that science and engineering can be a lot
> of fun.
> On the other side public contests are observed by people that are negative
> and don't care about robots.
>
> On one side private club contests are filled with like minded people that
> are really interested in robots.
> On the other side, this is exclusionary to a select few.
>
> On one side, awards recognize people for their achievements
> On the otherside, awards require some form of a revenue source.
>
> On the one side, robotics is hard.
> On the other side, robots teach you more about reality than college will
> ever teach.
>
> On the one side, multiple contests in a year allows people more
> opportunities to run their robots.
> On the otherside, it burns out the people running the multiple events.
>
> On one side a once a year contest is more manageable by the volunteers
> On the otherside, you only get to run your robot once a year.
>
> And on, and on, and on....
>
> One thing for sure, reguardless of what happens, who shows up, how many
> robots are there, there are people that are just
> not happy about what goes on and wish things were different.
>
> The way I look at it, if you got a group of people willing to put in the
> hours to put on a contest, let them. Who wants
> to compete, let them. Choose the contests based on what people are
> willing to participate in. If you have a contest
> idea where only 2 people are interested in, and people willing to do the
> work in hosting it, let them. It will either
> grow, remain the same, or go away when the people running the contest gets
> tired of it.
>
> Complaints does one thing, causes the people that run the events to become
> less motivated. And if no one steps in after
> they quit, then there are no more contests. Then people will complain
> that there are no contests, until someone steps
> up to do the work, and the cycle repeats.
>
> There are many reasons people don't show up for a contest. Do you
> remember the reason why you didn't show up the last
> event you weren't at. We all have reasons why we don't do things, and why
> we do things.
>
> Just some random thoughs,
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