This year's Mobot race participants have one less reason for any lackluster performance – weather. For some strange reason, the weather gods smiled upon Pittsburgh, allowing the Mobot Committee an afternoon of perfect sunshine in which to hold the race. As if on cue, throngs of curious and eager spectators appeared along the sides of the race course at noon, and before long, the SCS 11th Annual Mobot Race race got underway.

In this grueling race, mobots have to go through the fifteen inverted U-shaped gates placed at various points along the windy race course. In the process, they have to negotiate two slopes, as well as a series of 'decision points' towards the end of the course. Traditionally, mobots have employed Infrared-Red (IR) sensors to detect the white path. In recent years, an increase in the use of robotic vision has been noted. The further a mobot gets in the race, the better. Race times are used as the deciding factor only when two mobots complete the same number of gates.

There were a total of 8 mobots in this year's "robotic athletic meet," three Undergraduate, two Open and three Exhibition entries. The winner of the Undergraduate Category, CornFlake, made it to Gate 11 in 1:16.97. CornFlake was an entry submitted by Micheal Dille, Brian Thompson, and Jack Wu, all of whom are juniors in SCS. Days earlier, CornFlake had claimed top spot in the $99 Mini Challenge. David Urban's Fubar Junior mobot took the second place prize in the Undergraduate Category by reaching Gate 5 in 3:35.30. Computer Science PhD student James Bruce won first place in the Open Class with his Dodgy II entry which reached Gate 5 in 0:24.84. Last but not least, John Palmisano's Pikachu received this year's award for the Judges' Choice.

Sadly, no mobot managed to reach the finish line, save one. The Robotics Club mascot made a dash through the course towards the end of the event, eliciting serious bouts of laughter from the crowds. Carnegie Mellon Mobot science certainly has a long way to go before they can rival us humans!

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Senior Research Technician (CSD) Greg D Armstrong performs a cheer for the mobot participants in his kilt and pom-poms.	Sigma Nu's entry to the Mobot Race takes on a strange appearance with its black trashbag exterior.
Pikachu gets off to a good start as its handler follows closely behind.	Project Scientist H. Benjamin Brown of the Robotics Institute examines the scoreboard as the next Mobot contestant gets ready to race the course.
Mobot contestant Jack Wu and the rest of his team members stand at Gate 0 and await the judge's signal to initiate Cornflake's first run of the race course in the Undergraduate category.	Cornflake successfully makes it past the first slope and navigates through Gate 2 with ease.
Senior Research Programmer Dan Bothell and former student winner of Mobot races makes his final round of checks to DJB XI at Gate 0. 'XI' represents the number of times that this mobot has taken part in the annual Mobot race. With this year being the 11th year of this competition, DJB XI certainly is the 'grand-daddy' of all mobots!	An entry from the Exhibition category, handlers of Team Biped says its twin-legged design gives the mobot up to 13 degrees of freedom in its motion. However, its ambulatory motion did not carry it very far beyond Gate 0.
The crowds line up on both sides of the race track and watch in amazement as mobot after mobot takes on the gauntlet of maneuvering along the thin white strip through each numbered gates.	After an impressive run, Cornflake careens into the grass and stops short of Gate 12 as its handler Jack Wu readies to retire it from the race.
Cornflake passes through Gate 8. Cornflake was one of the most succesful and fastest mobots at this year's race.	The final robot of the day was the Robotics Club's massive creation. He passes Gate 2 by completely removing it from his path.

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