[robotics-worldwide][HRI][ML-news][compcop][News] Announcing the PhyRC Challenge: a Physical Robotic Caregiving Competition with Real Robot Prizes
Tapomayukh Bhattacharjee
Dear Colleagues,
The EmPRISE Lab is thrilled to announce the PhyRC Challenge, a competition to facilitate innovation in physical robotic caregiving. The competition has two tracks (Track 1: Fixed-based Manipulation for Robot-assisted Dressing and Track 2: Mobile Manipulation for Robot-assisted Bed Bathing), each evaluated through two phases, namely Phase 1: Simulation Phase and Phase 2: Real Robot Phase. We would like to thank Kinova for generously sponsoring a Gen 3 7-DoF robot arm for the Track 1 winning team and Hello Robot for generously sponsoring a Stretch 3 robot for the Track 2 winning team.
About Physical Robotic Caregiving:
Report [1] from 2021 states that over 1 billion people around the world require assistance to carry out daily tasks, and that this number will significantly increase with the aging population. Caregiving robots have the potential to reduce caregivers' workload and increase care recipients' independence. The EmPRISE Lab is hosting the PhyRC (pronounced as `fy-R-C`) Challenge, which stands for Physical Robotic Caregiving Challenge. With the mission of enabling robots to improve the quality of life of people with mobility limitations by assisting them with activities of daily living (ADLs), we provide realistic setups for robot-assisted dressing and bathing tasks which are important ADLs, with the hope to explore solutions to interesting rigid and deformable object manipulation and physical human-robot interaction problems in physical caregiving settings.
Competition Phases:
Simulation Phase (Phase 1) - we will use RCareWorld as a simulation platform for this phase. The teams can choose which Track they want to participate in (they can participate in both tracks as well) and are required to complete at least one of the caregiving tasks in the simulation environment. We will provide the simulation environments including the human avatars, robots, and environmental objects.
Real Robot Phase (Phase 2) - Select teams with the best simulation results will be invited to compete using real-world robots in May 2025 at a venue which will be announced later. Participants will be allowed to use any kind of robot they may have access to. We do not apply restrictions to the algorithms or methodologies, nor the robots they use. The robots need to perform the same tasks in the real world except this time, the robots will do the same tasks with a manikin (and not a real human). We will provide the real-world environment including manikins, hospital beds, wheelchairs etc. The participants will just need to ship their robots to the venue.
Task Details (check the website for the visualization of the tasks): The participants should sign up for at least one of the tracks:
Track 1: Fixed-based manipulation for robot-assisted dressing: Assistive dressing is an ADL task during which the caregiver helps the care recipient put on garments. The task setting for the competition considers using a Kinova Gen 3 7-DoF arm to help a human avatar perform the dressing task in Phase 1. For Phase 2, the participants are free to use any robots. The manikin sits in a wheelchair without handles and both arms are stretched forward. The robot needs to grasp a hospital gown, approach the wrist of the manikin, and pull the sleeve up as much as possible to dress both arms.
Track 2: Mobile manipulation for robot-assisted bed bathing: Bed bathing is an ADL task performed during everyday nursing procedures for people with severe mobility limitations to help them maintain hygiene. The task setting for the competition considers full-body bed bathing, where a manikin is lying on the bed, and the robot needs to grab a scrubber, dip it in the water, and slide the scrubber over the entire human body while making sure that the force exerted is appropriate. The participants need to program a Stretch 3 robot to cover as much body area as possible while keeping the force within a certain threshold to make the human feel comfortable.
Prizes:
Track 1 Winner: Kinova Gen3 7-DoF Robot sponsored by Kinova
Track 2 Winner: Hello Robot Stretch 3 Robot sponsored by Hello Robot
Key Dates:
Registration Deadline: August 31, 2024
Phase 1 Announcement: Aug 1, 2024
Phase 1: Aug 1 - Oct 31, 2024 (3 months)
Phase 2 Announcement: Nov 7, 2024 (Top-n teams released)
Phase 2 Preparation: Nov 7, 2024 - May 2025, Teams Prep for Real-robot competition (6 months)
Phase 2 Final Preparation at Venue: May 2025, Teams practice in competition arena for a couple of days (Venue TBD)
Phase 2 Competition: May 2025, Teams compete during this period and the winners are announced at the end
Registration at: https://forms.gle/YFVwRw7aPcPcLYKq7 by August 31, 2024.
For more information, visit the PhyRC Challenge website. If you have any questions, please email [empriselab21 at gmail dot com] with [PhyCare] in the subject line.
[1] World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), “Assistive technology,” 2021. https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_1055_2021.pdf.