The CiberUFP team, composed by two computer science researchers/lecturers from University Fernando Pessoa, members of the Intelligent Sensing and Ubiquitous Systems group (http://isus.ufp.pt), José Manuel Torres and Christophe Soares, won the 16th edition of the robotic simulation competition – CyberMouse, held at the University of Aveiro on 25th of May 2011.
CyberMouse is a robotic competition, which takes place in a simulation environment running in a network of computers. The simulation system creates a virtual arena, populated by obstacles, where a starting grid, a target area, signaled by a beacon, and a home area are integrated. It also creates the virtual bodies of the robots. Participants must provide the software agents, which control the movement of the virtual robots, in order to accomplish the competition goal, a mission of search and rescue.
A team of 5 robots, playing simultaneously, is given a twofold challenge. First, it must locate and position all their robots on the target area, placed somewhere in a maze. After that, all the robots must position themselves within the home area. Robotic agents have some typical sensors available such as GPS, compass, bumpers or obstacle sensors. Robots are equipped with a broadcast communication system. A robot can broadcast a message to all of its teammates within certain constraints.
CyberMouse is the younger brother of another robotic competition, MicroMouse, which used real autonomous and mobile robots and takes place in the same day. Both competitions are organized by University of Aveiro.
The CyberMouse competition is intended for students and/or professors of higher education and secondary schools and is held annually since 2001.