November 13
Micro INVaDERS
Micro Invaders is a strategic robotics game where multiple teams compete to develop the smartest AI, enabling two autonomous robots to perform manoeuvres in a fast-paced game of strategy. The month-long opportunity to hone your skills and practice culminates in a one-night robot showdown, where the AI-controlled mini-robots go head-to-head in three hours of intensive tournament challenges.
Of the applicants, four enthusiastic teams will be chosen for a one-day showdown and become the first D0WNF4LL certified AI Citizens in the Robot Uprising universe.
The finalists will receive golden tickets to the Robot Uprising Artificial Invaders event in 2021, where they will get a chance to compete for the main prize (2000€) and, of course, ETERNAL GLORY!
Gather your friends, develop your unbeatable AI and compete in the most interactive AI tournament in Finland. Practice in public arenas throughout Helsinki, climb the ladder through ranked games and get connected to the biggest companies in the industry. The final tournament will be held in our partner’s premises and live-streamed on Twitch.
schedule
| 29.07. | Team registration open |
| 24.09. | Application period closes |
| 05.10. | Accepted teams are released |
| 09-15.10. | Hands-on your robot |
| 19.10.-10.11. | Practice at home and train your model on simulation |
| 13.11. | Final tournament, Helsinki Think Company, Helsinki |
schedule
| 29.07. | Team registration open |
| 24.09. | Application period closes |
| 05.10. | Accepted teams are released |
| 09-15.10. | Hands-on your robot |
| 19.10.-10.11. | Practice at home and train your model on simulation |
| 13.11. | Final tournament, Helsinki Think Company, Helsinki |
FAQ
Teams
Micro Invaders is designed for hacker teams of 2 to 4 members. Individual applications are accepted but they are encouraged to form a team and apply.
The win of Micro Invaders demands proper programming skills to begin with and therefore the competition is not designed for complete beginners. Teams are facing challenges combining skills in machine learning, localization, mapping, robot design, computer vision and game AI so colorful teams are encouraged.
Programming & Robots
Micro Invader provides the competitors with a pre-built robot designed by our experts.
The provided robot kit will consist of:
- A container unit with two motors and tracks
- An Arduino-based controller board
- ESP32
- Batteries
The base is a combination of standard parts and 3D printed parts. Robots will observe the game arena through an overhead camera stream.
Robots should be completely autonomous during the competition. They will need to be programmed in such a way to win the game without any human intervention. If a robot breaks down, gets tilted etc. and the team wants to pull their robot out of the game arena during an ongoing round, the team will lose points from their mothership. After the pull-out the robot can return to the arena from the mothership starting position.
You can teach your robot with machine Learning and Reinforcement Learning - they’re instrumental in training the AI. We provide a Unity3D simulation environment in order to train robots before the competition. The simulation environment is based on Unity's ML-Agents library.
Game & Arena
The game is played in a square-shaped 1.5x1.5m arena with multiple cores/balls located at the center. Two sides of the arena will function as scoring areas, one for each team. Robots will start the match launching from the side of their teams.
Two competing teams will deploy 2 robots each to the starting area. The teams should try to get points by collecting more cores and by protecting the existing ones.
Teams get points by collecting balls/cores. Cores are presented in the challenge as light and hollow balls at the area - each worth of different amounts of points. Cores are light round objects that the robots are able to push and also lift if additional arms are attached to the robot.
Values and amount of different cores:
- Green (positive points, high in numbers).
- Red (negative points, low in numbers)
If your score goes to zero or negative by either taking in negative cores or by other penalties, the opponent wins. The opponent also wins if the team receives three or more negative cores during a match.
A team can lose points by:
- Receiving red negative cores to the their own scoring area
- Interfering with the robot during a round
- Pulling robot away from game arena due to tilt, breakdown, etc.
Micro Invaders
Micro Invaders is a strategic robotics game where multiple teams compete to develop the smartest AI, enabling two autonomous robots to perform manoeuvres in a fast-paced game of strategy. The month-long opportunity to hone your skills and practice culminates in a one-night robot showdown, where the AI-controlled mini-robots go head-to-head in three hours of intensive tournament challenges.
Of the applicants, four enthusiastic teams will be chosen for a one-day showdown and become the first D0WNF4LL certified AI Citizens in the Robot Uprising universe.
The finalists will receive golden tickets to the Robot Uprising Artificial Invaders event in 2021, where they will get a chance to compete for the main prize (2000€) and, of course, ETERNAL GLORY!
Gather your friends, develop your unbeatable AI and compete in the most interactive AI tournament in Finland. Practice in public arenas throughout Helsinki, climb the ladder through ranked games and get connected to the biggest companies in the industry. The final tournament will be held in our partner’s premises and live-streamed on Twitch.
| 29.07. | Team registration open |
| 24.09. | Application period closes |
| 05.10. | Accepted teams are released |
| 09-15.10. | Hands-on your robot |
| 19.10.-10.11. | Practice at home and train your model on simulation |
| 13.11. | Final tournament, Helsinki Think Company, Helsinki |
Teams
Micro Invaders is designed for hacker teams of 2 to 4 members. Individual applications are accepted but they are encouraged to form a team and apply.
The win of Micro Invaders demands proper programming skills to begin with and therefore the competition is not designed for complete beginners. Teams are facing challenges combining skills in machine learning, localization, mapping, robot design, computer vision and game AI so colorful teams are encouraged.
Programming & Robots
Micro Invader provides the competitors with a pre-built robot designed by our experts.
The provided robot kit will consist of:
- A container unit with two motors and tracks
- An Arduino-based controller board
- ESP32
- Batteries
The base is a combination of standard parts and 3D printed parts. Robots will observe the game arena through an overhead camera stream.
Robots should be completely autonomous during the competition. They will need to be programmed in such a way to win the game without any human intervention. If a robot breaks down, gets tilted etc. and the team wants to pull their robot out of the game arena during an ongoing round, the team will lose points from their mothership. After the pull-out the robot can return to the arena from the mothership starting position.
You can teach your robot with machine Learning and Reinforcement Learning - they’re instrumental in training the AI. We provide a Unity3D simulation environment in order to train robots before the competition. The simulation environment is based on Unity's ML-Agents library.
Game & Arena
The game is played in a square-shaped 1.5x1.5m arena with multiple cores/balls located at the center. Two sides of the arena will function as scoring areas, one for each team. Robots will start the match launching from the side of their teams.
Two competing teams will deploy 2 robots each to the starting area. The teams should try to get points by collecting more cores and by protecting the existing ones.
Teams get points by collecting balls/cores. Cores are presented in the challenge as light and hollow balls at the area - each worth of different amounts of points. Cores are light round objects that the robots are able to push and also lift if additional arms are attached to the robot.
Values and amount of different cores:
- Green (positive points, high in numbers).
- Red (negative points, low in numbers)
If your score goes to zero or negative by either taking in negative cores or by other penalties, the opponent wins. The opponent also wins if the team receives three or more negative cores during a match.
A team can lose points by:
- Receiving red negative cores to the their own scoring area
- Interfering with the robot during a round
- Pulling robot away from game arena due to tilt, breakdown, etc.
Timeline
Week 1
Receive your robot
Week 2 & 3
Practice at home and train your AI model using our simulation
Week 4
Showdown tournament. Get ready to conquer the arena
Week 1
Receive your robot
Week 2 & 3
Practice at home and train your AI model using our simulation
Week 4
Show down tournament. Get ready to conquer the arena
GAME LOgic
Each team has two autonomous mini-robots playing for their side at a time. All teams start with base points that they can either try to increase or protect to win the tournament. The game is played between two teams battling each other in short 3 round showdowns.
The points are increased by collecting positive/green cores to the goalside and the points are lost by receiving negative/red cores or by receiving other penalties. If a team goal receives 3 negative cores the opponent wins. The team holding greater status will win. In case of a tie, the team that collected their points fastest, wins.
Artificial Intelligence
The robot contains has a simple circuit board with a WiFi antenna. We recommend that you don’t write AI logic in the circuit board – instead, you can send motor commands through WiFi. There are no technology restrictions.
The code can run in any hardware, such as your personal laptop. We recommend that the PC running the AI is connected to the same Wifi network in order to decrease ping/delay.
A full example will be provided for training an artificial intelligence in a Unity3D simulation and moving the physical robot with Python3.
Simulation
The simulation is built in Unity3D. The simulation should work on Windows, macOS and Ubuntu.
The simulated robots listen to localhost, so you can control them in the same way as you can control the real physical robots. The simulation is built over Unity ML-agents. ML agents make using reinforcement learning pretty easy.
GAME LOgic
Each team has two autonomous mini-robots playing for their side at a time. All teams start with base points that they can either try to increase or protect to win the tournament. The game is played between two teams battling each other in short 3 round showdowns.
The points are increased by collecting positive/green cores to the goalside and the points are lost by receiving negative/red cores or by receiving other penalties. If a team goal receives 3 negative cores the opponent wins. The team holding the greater score will win. In case of a tie, the team that collected their points fastest, wins.
Artificial Intelligence
The robot contains a simple circuit board with a WiFi antenna. We recommend that you don’t write AI logic to the circuit board – instead, you can send motor commands through WiFi. There are no technology restrictions.
The code can run in any hardware, such as your personal laptop. We recommend that the PC running the AI is connected to the same Wifi network in order to decrease ping/delay.
A full example will be provided for training an artificial intelligence in a Unity3D simulation and moving the physical robot with Python3.
Simulation
The simulation is built in Unity3D. The simulation should work on Windows, macOS and Ubuntu.
The simulated robots listen to localhost, so you can control them in the same way as you can control the real physical robots. The simulation is built over Unity ML-agents. ML agents make using reinforcement learning pretty easy.
