1. International contest for cleaning robots

Fifteen teams of young robot scientists and engineers competed at the "First International Robot Cleaning Contest" which took place at the EPFL Lausanne on Oct. 1st and 2nd, 2002. As first households robots are currently emerging as robot vacuum cleaners they herald a bright future even up to the vision that household robots will be as common as personal computers are today. The objective of the contest was to bring together consumer goods and appliance manufacturers, young researcher, and through media future customers so that their attention is attracted to this new technology. The contest was embedded in the IROS 2002, an annual robotics conference with a record attendance of some 800 scientists. The contest addressed three disciplines of household robots: · Robotic floor cleaning in a typical living room (12 participating teams) · Robotic window cleaning (3 participating teams) · General ideas on housekeeping robots as a "free-style" discipline (3 participating teams)