1602

The main objectives of the challenge are to (1) provide a task that will demonstrate a high level of intelligence and autonomy for robots acting in a natural, peopled, dynamic environment; (2) stimulate state-of-the-art robotics research to address this task; and (3) use robot demonstrations to educate the public about the exciting and difficult challenges of robotics research. The challenge was designed as a problem that would probably need a decade to achieve adequately. When the challenge was designed, it was anticipated that no single research institution would have adequate resources to meet the challenge on its own. The challenge task is for a robot to participate in the American Association for Artificial Intelligence National Conference on Artificial Intelligence--the robot must find the registration booth and register, interacting with people as needed, then with a map in hand, find its way to a location in time to give a technical talk about itself. Ideally, the robot should be given no more information than any other participant arriving in a new city to attend a major technical conference.