Photos: 'Mobot' races test design skills

This is the "Pikachu" mobot, which won the judge's choice award, after navigating its way through eight of 14 gates. In this photograph, it's shown just before it failed to take the right turn needed to go through gate nine. The reason seemed to be that its momentum was too high after going down the slope (with a 46-inch vertical drop) and it didn't slow down enough.

Adding to the complexity of the course is that it's run over an outdoor sidewalk, meaning that the course conditions can vary because of gaps in the concrete sidewalk, the reflectivity of the stripe due to humidity, shadows caused by bright sunlight, and lack of shadows due to an overcast sky.