Tirol Chocolate Biped Competition

A Japanese chocolate company called Tirol Chocolate hosts an annual little robot competition for, well, little robots.

The robots must be bipeds, but with no more than 2 servos per leg.  Additional servos (not in the legs) can be as many as you like.  In addition, the robot body must prominently display a Tirol Chocolate box (thus providing the sponsor’s benefit).  The robots compete in three games: a foot race, a cup-shooting competition, and a candy-carrying competition.

While it doesn’t seem that this competition draws anywhere near the number of participants or spectators as the more traditional Robo-One competitions, they’re still quite interesting. Limiting the legs to two servos each both encourages more affordable, entry-level robots (see Bipeds on a Budget), but also raises some very interesting locomotion and control problems to challenge more experienced builders.

The video above shows the cup-carrying competition.  For more videos and further information, check out the original post at Biped Robot News Japan.