Sounds like it is competition season again.
- UAV outback challenge where an unmanned ariel vehicle needs to find a person and drop supplies off to them. Registrations are due on the 27th September!
- NASA Sample Return Centennial Challenge, a 1.5 million dollar prize competition to have robots autonomously explore a region, collect samples, and bring them back to base. Registration due in January, with the competition set for June. Only 8 months before the deadline when they announced the competition details - what are they thinking?
- The ICRA solutions in perception challenge (May 2012), this doesn't seem too difficult - Identify and classify a set of objects, where you are given some training data/time. Use any sensor(s) you like.
- Australian CiSRA ExtremeImaging competition an interesting computer-photography competition, due October this year, finals in November.