Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Inside DJI's 'Robomasters' Robotics Competition (youtube.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the robotics-mayhem dept.

pacopico writes: Every year, DJI hosts a robotics competition called Robomasters. It draws in hundreds of engineering students from around the world for two weeks of all out robotics mayhem. The students build and then control robotic vehicles that blast away at each other with rubber bullets, while drones strafe from overhead. Bloomberg Businessweek did a short documentary on the competition and everything that goes with it, including a reality TV show, an anime series, and final battle attended by thousands of people at a stadium in Shenzhen. The Chinese teams usually do the best, and the winners get some money and sometimes a job offer at DJI -- all part of the country's quest to dominate the robotics industry in the years to come.

6 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. When will slashdot fix AC posting? by tomhath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Require a person log in before being allowed to post anonymously, and apply moderation to their karma. Otherwise slashdot will continue to swirl around the drain until it disappears

    1. Re:When will slashdot fix AC posting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Under default settings, without being logged in, as of right now yours is the only comment visible.

      I had to know and understand the system to change settings and manually load all the troll/spam comments. Seems like moderation is working to me.

      I sure do wish I still had access to the email address I set up my original Slashdot account under. I'd have to start all over now, and I guess I'm just not ready for a higher user ID yet. But if it helps in this good fight, maybe it's the right thing to do.

    2. Re:When will slashdot fix AC posting? by tomhath · · Score: 1

      Two problems with that suggestion:

      1) Down modding all those troll comments burns moderation points that should be used to up mod good comments.

      2) There are often good comments posted at Score 0 that I'd like to mod up, but that means I have to wade through all the crap.

  2. Requirements to be a robot by laosland · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "then control robotic vehicles" . Aren't robots supposed to be autonomous?

    1. Re:Requirements to be a robot by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Aren't robots supposed to be autonomous?

      The definition that stuck with me from childhood is that they had to make some decisions for themselves. Therefore your car is robotic. You give it some minimal inputs that let it know what you want, but it decides how to best achieve what you're asking for.

      Of course, that definition is slightly problematic when it comes to CNC. If a CNC machine has no feedback and it just controls the stepper motors in response to G-code, is it really making decisions, or is it just following instructions? Does that make an xyz plotter type CNC not a robot, but a delta type one because it decides how to get xyz from three Zs?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Re:when will idiots stop trying to suppress ACs by tomhath · · Score: 1

    The suggestion wouldn't suppress AC commenting in any way, unless you are a Troll. Then your posts (AC or otherwise) will be posted at -1 automatically where they belong.