[agents] Second Call for Participation: League of Robot Runners Competition, 2024 Edition

[Sven Koenig]

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Call for Participation: League of Robot Runners, 2024 Edition


www.leagueofrobotrunners.org


The League of Robot Runners (LoRR, https://www.leagueofrobotrunners.org 
<https://www.leagueofrobotrunners.org>) is a competition series tackling 
one of the most challenging problems in logistics automation: 
coordinating a team of moving robots.


Simplified versions of these problems appear in the research literature 
under names such as Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF), Multi-Robot Path 
Planning (MRPP), Multi-Agent Coordination, and many others. Sponsored by 
Amazon Robotics, LoRR is designed to bridge the gap between academia and 
industry by identifying the core combinatorial challenges that make 
robot coordination problems difficult to solve in practice.


In the competition, a team of (simulated) robots work together to 
complete tasks. They fulfil orders, sort mail and navigate tricky grid 
environments. Participants must schedule tasks to robots and compute 
efficient and collision-free paths for the team. The objective is to 
complete as many tasks as possible, all before time runs out.


The competition is open to teams and individuals from any geographic 
region and community. All approaches (and their combinations) are 
welcome, including but not limited to:


- Algorithmics and AI planning,

- Combinatorial search and optimization,

- Machine learning and Reinforcement Learning,

- Mathematical programming and Operations Research, and

- Any other class of reasoning techniques.


Awards and Prizes:


Participants will test their skills against the best in the field, 
competing for fame and financial prizes across three tracks. In all 
tracks, performance is evaluated based on the sum of your number of 
tasks completed versus the best team’s number of tasks completed.


Task Scheduling Track: $2,500 USD

For this track, you assign tasks to robots; we provide a path planner to 
route the robots.


Path Planning Track: $2,500 USD

For this track, we provide a scheduler to assign tasks to robots. You 
plan paths for the robots to complete the assigned tasks as quickly as 
possible.


Combined Track: $5,000 USD

You schedule the tasks and plan paths for the robots. Complete control 
for maximal efficiency!


Notable performances in each track (2nd, 3rd) will be highlighted and 
recognised with an award certificate.


A limited number of training awards are also available on a basis of 
merit. These awards are worth up to $1,000 USD and are intended to help 
participants who need large computational resources for pre-computations 
(for example, model training).  Details on how to apply are on our website.


Submission Process:


Participants register on our website with their GitHub credentials.  
Competing solvers are then uploaded to a private repository. The 
submitted code is automatically cloned, compiled, and executed on our 
evaluation server, and participants can track their progress via our 
live leaderboard. Submissions are welcome anytime before the deadline!


We provide starter code, example problems, solution validators, 
visualisers, and extensive documentation. After the competition, 
participants are required to open source their submissions so they can 
be studied and adopted by others in the research community.


Important dates:


- 20 May 2024: Competition announcement

- 04 Oct 2024: Start kit release, open for testing

- 15 Nov 2024: Main round begins

- 16 Feb 2025: Main round ends

- 02 Mar 2025:Winner announcement

- xx May 2025: Robot Runners Virtual Expo


Competition chairs:


- Daniel Harabor (Monash University)

- Sven Koenig (University of California, Irvine)

- Cathy Wu (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

- Jingjin Yu (Rutgers University)


For more information, please visit our website: www.leagueofrobotrunners.org

For community discussion, join our official Discord 
https://discord.gg/CEYT4g4raR


We hope to see you there!

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