The W Prize: An obstacle course for robots
How hard could it be to win the $200,000 price? At 74 cents each, that's the Radio Shack equivalent of 270,270 Parallax servos. 
To spark interest in walking/locomoting robots, Tad McGeer, a pioneer in robotics who developed the concept of passive dynamic walking, founded the W Prize. It will award at least $200,000 to the first team or individual that can field a locomoting robot, most likely a walking robot, that finishes a 10‑km obstacle course in 10,000 sec (2.8 hr) or less and uses no more than 10 kJ of energy for every kilogram of the robots mass. The Prize is meant to advance the state of the art in practical applications for walking robots and get the public interested and excited about robots.
The challenge takes place on a 200-m circuit that contestants must complete 50 times. Four obstacles along the course test the robots dexterity and stability. And the first obstacle, a size-limiting doorway, also forces robots to be somewhat human sized. Each robot must start the course by entering and holding position inside the doorway. It measures 1.7‑m tall, 0.8‑m wide, and 0.5‑m deep. After each out-and-back run though the course, robots must exit through the arch, turn around, and reenter it within 4 sec.
The second obstacle consists of 20 elevated and unevenly spaced stepping stones. The cinder-block stones are all the same height (at least 0.39‑m tall, and 0.23 × 0.23‑m square on the top). Distance between stones varies. Robots must walk or move using only the tops of the stones for support. The robots have 25 sec to get from the first to the last stone.
The disappearing ditch obstacle consists of three slightly elevated flat panels. On half the runs (randomly chosen) over the 10‑k course, the middle panel will be removed, leaving a wide but flat-bottomed ditch to traverse.
On every fifth time through the course once every kilometer robots must climb a set of six stairs, turn around on a landing, then descend the stairs, all within 10 sec. Stairs are not included on every circuit so that they dont dominate energy-consumption considerations.
Robots can be remotely operated and teams have the option to place sensors along the route, as long as they dont provide energy to the robot. Teams will also have a detailed scaled drawing that shows all the dimensions and placement of obstacles
Other rules dictate that robots must use the same means of propulsion/locomotion on all parts of the course. So an entrant cannot roll for one part, hop for another, then deploy eight legs for another. No person or object can interfere or touch a robot while its on the course. Living tissue cannot be a functional part of a machine. And robots must touch the ground (or an obstacle) every 3 sec, so flying is out.
To spark interest in walking/locomoting robots, Tad McGeer, a pioneer in robotics who developed the concept of passive dynamic walking, founded the W Prize. It will award at least $200,000 to the first team or individual that can field a locomoting robot, most likely a walking robot, that finishes a 10‑km obstacle course in 10,000 sec (2.8 hr) or less and uses no more than 10 kJ of energy for every kilogram of the robots mass. The Prize is meant to advance the state of the art in practical applications for walking robots and get the public interested and excited about robots.
The challenge takes place on a 200-m circuit that contestants must complete 50 times. Four obstacles along the course test the robots dexterity and stability. And the first obstacle, a size-limiting doorway, also forces robots to be somewhat human sized. Each robot must start the course by entering and holding position inside the doorway. It measures 1.7‑m tall, 0.8‑m wide, and 0.5‑m deep. After each out-and-back run though the course, robots must exit through the arch, turn around, and reenter it within 4 sec.
The second obstacle consists of 20 elevated and unevenly spaced stepping stones. The cinder-block stones are all the same height (at least 0.39‑m tall, and 0.23 × 0.23‑m square on the top). Distance between stones varies. Robots must walk or move using only the tops of the stones for support. The robots have 25 sec to get from the first to the last stone.
The disappearing ditch obstacle consists of three slightly elevated flat panels. On half the runs (randomly chosen) over the 10‑k course, the middle panel will be removed, leaving a wide but flat-bottomed ditch to traverse.
On every fifth time through the course once every kilometer robots must climb a set of six stairs, turn around on a landing, then descend the stairs, all within 10 sec. Stairs are not included on every circuit so that they dont dominate energy-consumption considerations.
Robots can be remotely operated and teams have the option to place sensors along the route, as long as they dont provide energy to the robot. Teams will also have a detailed scaled drawing that shows all the dimensions and placement of obstacles
Other rules dictate that robots must use the same means of propulsion/locomotion on all parts of the course. So an entrant cannot roll for one part, hop for another, then deploy eight legs for another. No person or object can interfere or touch a robot while its on the course. Living tissue cannot be a functional part of a machine. And robots must touch the ground (or an obstacle) every 3 sec, so flying is out.