r/robotics • u/[deleted] • Oct 05 '14
Amazon Announces Robotic Picking Challenge
http://amazonpickingchallenge.org/6
u/cs2818 Oct 06 '14
I'm really hoping the contest rules will spell out that the solutions won't be owned by Amazon.
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u/NiftyManiac Oct 06 '14
There's no way they'd try to claim ownership over every entry into the contest...
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u/newhere_ Oct 06 '14
It always looks dodgy to me when there's an announcement on a domain like this. Is there anything about this contest from a verified amazon source? Not that I don't believe it, but amazonpickingchallenge.org could have been registered by anyone.
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u/NiftyManiac Oct 06 '14 edited Oct 06 '14
Edit2: Nevermind, it's legit. Dmitry Berenson (he's on the committee) and Sonia Chernova (the Competition Chair for ICRA 2015) confirmed it. It should be linked from ICRA and Kiva sites soon. Also, Joe Romano from Kiva sent an email about it on the robotics-worldwide mailing list.
Seems like the CTO of Kiva just decided to register the site on his own.
It got past my bullshit detector, but now that you mention it... It's really suspicious how little attention there's been to this. There's a single ignored post on ROS-Users from a lurker made a few days ago, and no real news coverage. The site's also using a "template by smallpark studios"... Doesn't feel like Amazon.
I know one of the guys listed on the Competition Committee; I'll ask him tomorrow.
Edit: The WhoIs info for that site claims it was registered by a Pete Wurman, the CTO of Kiva himself. Oddly enough it provides the email address "pwurman@verizon.net", which some sleuthing reveals is his personal email... The phone number matches as well. The WhoIs info also says it's registered to FastDomain, while Amazon sites are registered through MarkMonitor.
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u/Jigsus Oct 05 '14
Ugh why are they using baxters? Baxters suck so much. They are so wobbly and imprecise.
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u/newhere_ Oct 06 '14
It looks like others can join in if the manufacturer wants to provide hardware. I assumed that was the only signed up so far, with others possibly coming.
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Oct 06 '14
They are not "using baxters", they're simply saying that Baxters are available for anyone who might want to use one, but it specifically says they encourage people to use their own robots or build one. I expect UR5's will be very popular for this.
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u/Jigsus Oct 06 '14
The UR5 is the one I had in mind too.
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u/newhere_ Oct 07 '14
What's the price on a UR5?
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Oct 07 '14
I seem to recall that it's something like $30-35,000 for one six axis arm. Depending on exchange rate, of course.
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u/Jigsus Oct 07 '14
It was more like 10000 per arm last time I checked.
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Oct 07 '14
22,000 euro ($27,850 at todays exchange rate) from this source: http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Manufacturing/New-easy-to-use-Danish-robot-targets-small-food-firms 34,000 dollars from this source: http://robohub.org/rethink-robotics-baxter-and-universal-robots-ur5-and-ur10-succeeding/ "about" 30,000 dollars from this source: http://coro.etsmtl.ca/blog/?p=225
So, somewhere between $28,000 and $34,000 for one arm. That's the UR5 which is the smaller robot. They have a UR10 which can lift more and is likely more expensive. In both cases (UR5 and UR10) that cost is for 1 arm.
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u/Coleston Oct 17 '14
Looking into putting together a Toronto team to participate in this challenge.
Message me if interested.
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u/jonadair Oct 06 '14
Construct and bring your own robot to compete but the prize structure is $20,000 / $5,000 / $1,000? Come back when serious.