There's a new addition to this year's RobotChallenge -  a new open source competition called:  ”Hack the Arduino Robot!”. Ten teams will be chosen to receive an Arduino Robot and present their projects at the end of March. But you need to be quick - the deadline for applications is January 26th.

The Arduino Robot was released in August 2013 and looks a bit like a robot vacuum cleaner. As we commented when it was launched in May 2013, it certainly doesn't suck and can  be used as an easy entry to the world of robotics, both hardware and software.

The only problem is that they are very hard to come by.

Now the Arduino blog carries news of a contest in which 10 Arduino Robots are up for grabs - but the deadline for coming up with an idea for a project using one is only days away!

RS Components is sponsoring the Hack the Arduino Robot competition which is part of RobotChallenge that takes place annually in Vienna Austria. This international championship for self-made, autonomous, and mobile robots started in 2004 and since then more than 1.000 robots from all over the world have taken part in the competition, making it one of the biggest events in the field of robotics worldwide.

If you fancy taking part in the new Arduino Robot competition the first stage is to Register for RobotChallenge before January 26 (after which a charge is made for this registration) and then submit a short description of your project idea (up to 120 words) responding to the questions: 

• What would you do with an Arduino Robot?
• What makes your idea special?
• What real life problem does your robot solve?

The following criteria will be used in select the 10 best project ideas:

• Feasibility of the project
• Idea and Creativity
• Technology and Innovation

The 10 selected teams will be notified by February 2, 2014 and will receive a brand new Arduino Robot (which they can keep after the competition) and then have 3 weeks  in which to implement their project ideas, document them and produce a short video (3-5 minutes) to be uploaded to the RS Components You Tube Channel.

Prizes will be awarded to the winners in two categories:

• Best project and documentation award
• Community award based on the number of views of the video

and will be presented during RobotChallenge 2014.

The Hack the Arduino Robot competition rules

also provide a link to video tutorials introducing the Arduino Robot from RS Components, the first of which is an unboxing video: