Secção especial: Concurso Micro-Rato'99: Editorial

Abstract

The Micro-Rato Contest of the University of Aveiro is a competition among small autonomous and mobile robots. Organised by the Electronics and Telecommunications Department of the University of Aveiro (DETUA), the contest aims at promoting, in a festival-like enviroment, the practical and integrated use of several subjects tipically taught in electronics courses. Along its past 4 editions, the Micro-Rato Contest has had a growing participation, either in number of teams as well as in audience. It is, today, a relatively well-known initiative in the country, particularly in universities and institutes offering degrees in robotics or in electronics.Hence, due to the popularity achieved, the present issue of Revista do DETUA devotes a section to the contest, including a description of the rules and technical specifications as well as seven short papers briefly describing some of the robots which performed best in the last edition.