Rolls-Royce has hooked up with Formula Pi to create a one-day RaceYourCode event. “RaceYourCode was conceived by Rolls-Royce as a fun, innovative way to challenge the finest digital thinkers and coders around the world,” reads the welcome page.

“As a successful applicant, you’ll be racing autonomous, Raspberry Pi-powered robots around a track as fast as you possibly can,” the competition entry page continues.

This news article first appeared in The MagPi #63. Click here to download The MagPi #63 and read more about Rolls-Royce and the RaceYourCode event (as well as the MonsterBorg robot).

Rolls-Royce and the RaceYourCode event

Rolls-Royce is looking for the next generation of engineers to work in the famous company.

“Data has been essential to our business for 20 years,” says Andrew Hutson-Smith, Director of Business Development and Innovation. “We’re looking to find people who are analytically minded but creative,” explains Andrew. “It’s quite a rare talent, actually.”

Rolls-Royce also wants people who can “understand the data,” adds Andy Appleyard, Global Resource and Capability Manager, Digital.

RaceYourCode and MonsterBorg robots

It’s a quirky competition. Each driver will have control of two MonsterBorg robots, one ‘leading’ and the other ‘trailing’, both of which have to cross the start/finish line. These robots are controlled by a Raspberry Pi 3, with a WiFi connection to the internet and to each other. The challenge is that your leading robot can only ‘see’ the track in front of it and your trailing robot can only ‘see’ behind it (each via a small on-board camera with limited range).

“The competitors get 45 minutes to look at the code,” explains Timothy Freeburn, PiBorg Director. “They can tinker with the code. Then, at the end of it, they get three laps to race the robots around.”

Like Formula Pi, the RaceYourCode event will use MonsterBorg robot kits.

The instructions for the RaceYourCode event can be found here. Registration is now closed, but you can watch the event on Twitch.

“We’d love to hear from you, regardless of wherever you are in the world.” says Andrew Hutson-Smith.