Maybe they no longer have prizes?

Plus, 'judging ends on Aug 6th' doesn't mean 'winners announced Aug 6th' =P

(I'm just poking fun, thats all)

The judging originally was to end on July 22. On July 22 it was moved to July 29. On July 29 it was moved to August 6. Now it is August 7 and the contest page has a link that says "View the Winners and Finalists!" If you click on that page and you get the same page that has been up from the beginning of the contest - without a list of winners or finalists. I wonder what the heck is going on. I am sort of new to Instructables so I don't know if this is normal or not.

This happened for the iRobot Create contest too . . . they kept extending deadlines . . .

There is of course the chance that winners were already contacted . . . or perhaps the harddrive that stored to votes died and they are trying to recover it =P

well if you are out of US , are you disqualified from the entire grand prize package ( like VIP pass, etc. ) and does the grand prize then go to the runner up? one more day !

You can still win the other prizes.

_{I think - at least, the rules don't say you can't}

we can enter it and it doesn't say that canadians and people from new zeland etc... cant enter but, if we did win they wouldn't pay airfare.

Well, if you can win things, I must be able too -- your farther away!

I just added a new video to my instructable. Robot camera tracking!

Wow! that is a really cool robot you made there! I like it!

If you mean the little guy below, that's the Symet beam bot - essentially just a solar cell, charging three capacitors, and periodically discharging through a little motor.

yes perfect, thanks you!

Sure - go for it!

and just maybe I have the stuff in my junk (um) box. :-)

PM me if you want to know my idea.

Maybe we can do a collaboration of some sort?

_{Maybe an easy robot. :P}

Yeah that would be totally cool. It's a shame I have less time on the site now that I've started work for this year.

Just wondering, do you have AIM?

I do, but I'm very rarely on. Paraplegic Shark if you feel like adding me. I mostly text on my phone. I haven't actively used AIM for like a year lol.

Well use the AIM on your phone. :-) I hope the "rarely on" will change... :P

You don't have to make autonomous beasties, or even radio-controlled. It can be wire controlled, or even just switch-on-and-go-forwards.

If you can think of a cool way of moving, or a really easy way to make a bodyshell from recycled (i.e. free) materials, then that's all you have to do.

I could genuinely see a single articulated leg, built of card, Lego or K'Nex and moved by hand as a demonstration piece being the winner of the movement section on grounds of imagination, originality or potential.

Hey, there were some really great low-tech entries in the earlier iRobot Create Challenge. Technoplastique's painting robot is a nice example.

Don't want to start from scratch? Buy a $10 remote controlled car or two and frankenstein them into something cool.

If you know just a little of electronics, you should be able to rig up an improvised bump sensor and/or light sensor, and have it drive/walk/fly on its own.

Heck, if you make enough of a splash in the Aesthetics or Reuse & Recycling, you could be in the prizes without even having a functioning robot! Knowledge of robotics will probably help, but is not actually required...

Well it's possible to build a robot no problems but the problem is not many people feel like building one, It would be easy enough to build a good robot but not one that id something useful as such...

The "Individuality Bot" that artqny just posted is a nice example that you don't really need the sophisticated technical robotics skills to enter this contest - just a bit of imagination!

I saw it, I liked that idea quite a lot...

Alright, to counter the "robotics is hard and expensive" comments, here are a bunch of examples of very cheap and easy projects, which I think would fit nicely with this competition. (Some of these are actual entries in the competition - no endorsement is implied...)

Not that I'm urging you to copy one of these, mind you - just to show what's possible, and maybe stir up some ideas...

KNEX:
knex battle bots
K'nex Programmable Automaton

BEAM bots:
Symet beam bot
How to Build a Robot - The BeetleBot
[http://www.instructables.com/id/Beware-of-the-horrible-pumpkin-bots-..../ Beware of the horrible pumpkin bots]

VIBRO bots (really just a recent BEAM bot flavor):
Itty Bitty Vibrobot
Snailbot Build Night
Walking on water: start building a StriderBot

More inspiration:
Micro RC Car Teardown
picoo Z hovercraft case
Give the gift of Robot Invasion
CloroxBot Recycled Giant Robot Costume!
Simple Animatronics (robotic hand)
Evil Robot of Doom!

It won't be a waste of time if you enjoy making it. If it is easy to do, a lot of people will make one like yours (after seeing yours, of course) Sometimes the most simple things are the best! I say go for it! Hey - you never know....

Check out BEAM robotics - things like solar-rollers, headbots and the like.

In the purest form, they are built from the gutted innards of dead electronics (walkmans, VCRs and the like). Solar engines can be built with new-bought parts for very little.

I built a headbot from the remains of a cassette-player, and have the main parts for a sumobot sitting in a box waiting for space and inclination.

Essential reading by the inventor of BEAM
Wikipedia entry with more links

Or look into stiquito.