ROBOTEX 2016
Robotex, the largest robotics competition in Europe, took place on the basis of the Tallinn University of Technology on December 2–4. Robotex is more than just a competition. About 3,000 workshops as well as a large technological exhibition occupying over 500 m2 and a space aerobic conference were held within the three days of the event.
More than 2,600 participants of the competition represented 1,137 robots in 23 disciplines, such as traditional competitions like robot-sumo, football, folkrace, water rally as well as original challenges of developing a robot control interface using the brain waves reading technologies.
The Belarusian team of 7 students and 3 teachers of the Mechanical Engineering Faculty of BNTU took part in the competition in 3 nominations: Lego Line Following, Mini-Robot Sumo, and FolkRace.
The team of Dmitry Legankov and Alexei Kruglikov participating in the Lego Line Following category met the technical challenges at the qualification stage and wrote a successful program code on the first day of the competition, which let them participate in the final stage among 24 other teams out of 112 teams that applied. Unfortunately, the Italian team turned out to be a stumbling block for our team in the finals, with its robots sharing the 1st and 2nd places. Eventually, the Belarusian team was among the 12 strongest teams in the category.
Dmitry Trifankov and Denis Chernous, participating in the Robot Sumo category, passed the qualification on the second day of competition, along with other 30% of the teams that applied. The teams were split into the groups of eight then; our team was able to outperform its rivals from Klaipeda University (Lithuania) only and thus finished its participation.
The third day of the competition was dedicated to FolkRace, and the Belarusian team presented two robots: RoboRover M1 by Maxim Massalsky and MROBOT by Artem Podgorny and Yegor Rachko. MROBOT shared the 2nd and 4th places in its group, while RoboRover shared the 3rd and 4th places.
Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus to the Republic of Estonia Anatoly Stepus attended ROBOTEX on the last day in order to support the guys. He discussed with them the possibilities and prospects for cooperation with local Estonian organizations in the field of education, technology, culture, and industry.
Summing up the results of the competition, the leader of the team, vice dean of the Mechanical Engineering Faculty of BNTU Andrei Avsievich noted that the guys hoped for a more successful performance. However, ROBOTEX made it clear that competition of such a level requires much more material and human resources and, most importantly, discipline. He expressed his hope that the teams having learned from their errors will be able to achieve better results next year.
Links:
