Drive from the origin to a point at least 100 feet away and back to the origin and stop. Distance is then measured from the stopping place to the origin.  Shortest distance wins.  It is left undefined what happens if the robot never stops.

Drive from the origin around a square (typically 100 feet on each side) clockwise or counter-clockwise as instructed by the judge, and stop at the origin.  Distance is then measured from the stopping place to the origin.  Shortest distance wins.

It is legal to cut the corners, pivot 90 degrees, execute a 3-pt turn or whatever it takes to transition from one leg to the next.   Robots are expected to make an honest attempt at traveling the correct distance on each leg but currently this is not judged.

Similarity to the UMBmark procedure developed at Univ. of Michigan by Daniel Borenstein for calibrating the accuracy of odometry and navigation of robots is entirely a figment of your imagination.  

Identical to event #1 but this time there are obstacles in the way.  

The difficulty level of obstacles and terrain may be scaled to the capability level of robots, or not.

This event challenges the robot to travel several hundred yards toward an unseen finish point with buildings and trees and other objects in the way.  There is a time limit of 10 minutes and the course will be laid out such that the expected path around all the obstacles will be 900 feet, so a robot averaging 1.5 feet per second along a reasonably smart path will finish right on time.

The score has two components:  1) the distance in feet from the finish point at the time limit and 2) the sum of distance penalties from each gate missed along the way.  Minimum score wins.

The aforementioned gates will be placed along the course out of sight of each other.  A distance penalty is incurred for each gate not passed cleanly through.  The gates are made of 2 orange traffic cones 4 feet apart (sorry all you cone-haters).  They will be placed to be noticable along the most likely path.  If more than one path is likely, eg both ways around a building, then gates may be placed along both paths and only penalties for the path chosen will apply.  The organizers will consider that robots prefer not to have to move far out of their normal way or slow down on their way through the gates.  Some organizers will be nicer than others.

A robot with too much knowledge is a dangerous thing, so here we only tell it the location of the start and finish points (Google Earth lat/long points) and literally nothing else.  No other locations, maps, paths or other data about the venue are permitted.  Built-in Google Earth maps with all sorts of preplanned routes for example are not allowed.  The locations of gates will not be known.  At 2 minutes prior to start, a team will receive the start and finish point locations written on a 3x5 index card.  Cards must be handed back before the start.  

If there is enough interest, we hope to add mapping and planning as a feature of future events but you never know....

Robots that lack vision can and should still compete and do well, in spite of gate penalties.  Robots that lack good navigating, obstacle detecting or all-terrain skills will likely get lost or stuck.

It is likely that there will be people and pets on the course and they may constitute serious unplanned obstacles.  Normally this should be taken in stride but in a severe case, the judges may allow a re-run or make a distance adjustment, at their discretion.

Robots must halt at the time limit, either automatically or be halted by their operators.

Robots are expected to be fully autonomous, however there may be special hazards on this course for which a bit of herding or downright steering by the operator is allowed.  This includes avoiding bodies of water, flower beds, cliffs and maybe some others, all at the judges' discretion.  There will likely be a distance penalty assigned by the judges for substantial operator steering or herding.  

There are no limits on instrumentation, size, weight or mode of power other than the safe/sane rule.  Note that remote computers are allowed, although not likely practical due to distances and obstacles.  Flying and swimming are not allowed.  Robots must either roll, walk, hop, slither, run or crawl.  Sauntering, toddling, wandering and roaming are subject to the judge's mood.  

If the event becomes too easy, we will make it harder.  If people start showing up with $100,000 robots and teams of 20 developers, this is great and we will of course split into levels so that "amateurs" still have a challenge they can win.  But we still won't offer $1million prizes.