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The Sumo Competition Services provide a simulation environment which hosts sumo competitions as well as a sample sumo player service which can be used in the simulation environment and with physical robots.

The sumo competition takes place in a round ring. The inner part of the ring is a non-reflective black surface while the outer part of the ring is brightly colored and reflective. Two robots are placed within the ring and must remain within the ring. A match consists of three rounds which are each 60 seconds long. A round ends when one robot goes outside of the ring and a point is awarded to the other robot. The point is awarded even if the robot was not pushed out of the ring. The robot with the most points at the end of the match wins. If the round finishes with neither robot leaving the ring, no points are awarded.

The services are used with iRobot Create robots with an on-board CE computer and a mounted webcam. The robots have a differential drive which allows them to move forward or backward at any angle and also to swivel in place. The robots have left and right bumper sensors to sense contact with another robot and IR sensors on the bottom to detect a change in the IR reflectivity under the robot. The different reflectivity of the outer part of the ring allows the robots to sense when they are about to leave the ring.

Sumo Competition for Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.5 (CTP May 2007)