We are very excited to announce a brand new Robot Virtual Worlds Competition, Mini Urban Challenge! Our new virtual simulation is based off the national competition sponsored by The Doolittle Institute, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and Special Operations Command.

The purpose of this competition is to design and program a robotic vehicle that can autonomously navigate a mini-urban city, using a virtual LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 robot. The robot must enter the mini-urban city from a home base, travel through the city to assigned parking lots, park in any parking space in each assigned parking lot, and then exit the city by returning to the home base and parking in the home base. The robot should use the optimal path (shortest distance) through the mini-urban city to visit the parking lots. While in the city, the robot should obey traffic rules by stopping at stop signs and following standard right-of-way rules when other vehicles are encountered. You can find the official rule here.

Our new Robot Virtual World features three modes for the Mini Urban Challenge:

1. Practice Mode allows students to develop and test their code for the challenge, without worrying about scoring, penalties, or the clock.

2. Competition Mode is the standard version of the challenge field, complete with timing and scoring to reflect the real world competition.

3. City Mode is an exciting, themed version of the challenge field, which also includes timing and scoring that reflect the real world competition.

Download and install the Mini Urban Challenge for Robot Virtual Worlds here! To submit your scores and compete with others, you will need a free account from the Computer Science Student Network!