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What is Robocon?
What is Robocon?
ABU Robocon is an annual international robotics competition that has been held since 2002. The competition is organized by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) and is open to teams from various countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The history of ABU Robocon can be traced back to the year 2002, when the first competition was held in Japan. Since then, the competition has been held annually, attracting teams from all over the Asia-Pacific region. Over the years, the competition has grown in popularity and has become a highly anticipated event for students and robotics enthusiasts.
One of the unique aspects of ABU Robocon is its focus on promoting technological education and research and encouraging the development of robotics technology in the Asia-Pacific region. The competition provides a platform for students to showcase their technical skills and creativity in designing and building robots, and to learn from their peers from other countries.
The competition is known for its toughness, as it requires teams to design and build robots that can perform various tasks in a limited amount of time. The engineering challenges faced by students at ABU Robocon are complex and demanding and require a high level of technical expertise and creativity.
For students, participating in ABU Robocon provides a unique learning opportunity. The competition provides hands-on experience in designing and building robots and allows students to apply the theories and concepts they have learned in their studies. Additionally, students have the opportunity to network with peers from other countries and learn from the experiences of other teams.
In conclusion, ABU Robocon is a highly prestigious and challenging competition that provides students with a unique opportunity to showcase their technical skills and creativity and to learn from their peers from other countries. The competition has a rich history and has played a major role in promoting technological education and research in the Asia-Pacific region.
Example problem statement
Example problem statement
MIT-WPU Tech Team
MIT-WPU Tech Team
MIT-WPU Tech Team is the official MIT-WPU robotics team, founded in 2007 with a vision to inculcate multidisciplinary engineering and business acumen in students. Over the years, the team has participated in and won various robotics competitions and has taken on industry projects to completion.
Robocon has been one of the most important events in the history of robotics in India. All the premier institutes in India—IITs, NITs, and major private schools—participate in this competition. No doubt, the team focused on this particular event more than any other. Over the years, the team has achieved extraordinary results at this event.
Every year, on average, 90–95 college teams participate in this competition. Even for a team like the MIT-WPU Tech Team, it is super hard to win the competition. If we do the math, the probability of MIT-WPU clinching the championship is a mere 0.0033. This is based solely on the number of teams and MIT-WPU's previous track record. If you take into account the myriad of other variables—strategy, innovation, unyielding determination, and the most important point that each game lasts for just 3 minutes—that probability edges even closer to zero.
It's all just a game of playing the odds, performing well, and learning new skills along the way!
Robocon 2018
Robocon 2018
From being terrified by complex embedded systems involving multi-layer PCBs and vast libraries in C to being amazed by the resulting robot automation, this was my first year getting thoroughly trained in robotics and embedded systems. In the robotics lab new students are trained by senior students.
Problem Statement
The problem is inspired by a traditional Vietnamese ethnic game known as ném con (throwing shuttlecock). The objective of the game is to hurl shuttlecocks through the ring at a high angle. In Vietnamese culture, the game is about having fun and making new friends.
Each team is given a few shuttlecocks and is required to create two robots, one manual and one automatic. The manual robot must pass the shuttlecocks to the automatic robot, which attempts to hurl the shuttlecocks through the rings (this game, unlike the original game, has three rings of varying heights). The winner is determined by points or by an immediate KO if the robots successfully hurl the shuttlecocks through three rings and the shuttlecock lands on a golden disc on the other side of the highest ring.
Theme video: Link
As a new member of the team, most of my time was spent learning and building robotic systems that were used in the robocon event. I specifically learned and implemented:
Basic Robotics Theory: physics of robotics and Holonomic drives
Control Systems: motor control position and speed; PID control for robot trajectory.
Embedded Systems: schematic capture and PCB Design
All these topics were learned and implemented in the context of the problem statement. Check out the videos below for the full autonomous runs.
Three-wheel Omni Drive in MIT Robotics Lab
Robocon 2018 Quarterfinal, India
Robocon 2018 Final, India
Robocon 2019
Robocon 2019
Growth!
Problem Statement
The mission of the ABU Robocon 2019 Ulaanbaatar is to deliver information fast by using a relay messenger system, the Urtuu, which was first innovated in the world by the nomadic Mongolians. For exchanging information over a long distance, Mongolians had been using the urtuu system as a messenger for rest (feeding, replacing a horse, etc.,), and in some cases, relaying to another messenger. By using the Urtuu system, a messenger was able to travel in distance of 400 kilometres per day. At present days, we are going through massive and abrupt evelopment of exchanging and sharing knowledge and information. This Urtuu system was an important invention that opened a new door for us to exchange and share the knowledge in regardless of space. Based on this concept, ABU Robocon 2019 Ulaanbaatar is designed to promote the idea of “Sharing the knowledge”.
A match is between Red and Blue teams. It lasts three minutes at most. Each team has one manual robot known as Messenger-Robot 1, and one automatic robot known as MessengerRobot 2. The automatic robot has four legs as of horses while wheels are not allowed. The manual robot carries the Gerege as a testimony from the Khangai urtuu, which is the the starting point. It goes along Forest, Bridge, and crosses the Line 1 next to Gobi urtuu, which is the starting point of the automatic robot. After Messenger-Robot 1 reaches Gobi urtuu, Messenger-Robot 1 passes Gerege to Messenger-Robot 2 at Gobi urtuu. Once MessengerRobot 2 successfully receives Gerege, it can go along the Gobi area. Messenger-Robot 2 must go by four legs, like a horse, and cannot use wheels to move. Messenger-Robot 2 passes through Sand dune and Tussock, and directs to Mountain urtuu. After Messenger-Robot 2 reaches Mountain urtuu, Messenger-Robot 1 can enter Throwing zone to throw Shagai, and must earn 50 or more points. In case that Messenger-Robot 1 earns 50 or more points, Messenger-Robot 2 is allowed to climb the Mountain. Afterwards, if it reaches Uukhai zone and raises the Gerege first, the team is the winner, which is called “UUKHAI”.
Theme video: Link
Building on top of what I learned and implemented last year, I researched and brought new technology to the robots that satisfied the current year's problem statement.
BLDC Motor control: Commutation sequence, torque control, speed control
Multi-Layer (4-6) PCB for microcontrollers and peripherals
Bazier curve path planning
Sensor filtering algorithms
Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics.
Hardware-Software integration
That's me on the left lifting the robot in the Robocon 2019 event, and below there are the demonstrations of the robots.
Even though we work hard to achieve the best results, not every day is your day. We didn't perform well in the event and were out of the top eight teams for the first time in history.
Linkage mechanism for robot
Robot navigation through forest
Robocon 2020
Robocon 2020
Fall down seven times, get up eight, dust yourself off, and keep going.
Problem Statement
The ABU Robocon 2020 Suva contest is to play rugby 7’s game using two robots and five obstacles as five defending players. The highlight of this game is how the two robots collaborate to score Try and the Goal Kick. The main and unique challenge of this game will be Goal Kick, kicking the Kick Ball over the cross bar of the conversion post because of the unique shape of the rugby ball. The audience will be fascinated if the robot made all the Goals successfully. We are looking forward to witnessing exciting games of unique robots built by the young budding engineers in Suva, Fiji. Based on this concept, ABU Robocon 2020 Suva is designed to promote the idea of “Rugby 7’s”. A game is between Red and Blue teams. It lasts three minutes at most. Each team has two robots known as Pass Robot (PR) and Try Robot (TR). The two robots can be either manual or automatic. The PR starts from the PR Start Zone. The PR picks up one Try Ball from the Ball Rack and passes the Try Ball from the Passing Zone to TR located in the Receiving Zone. The TR starts from the TR Start Zone and moves into the Receiving Zone to receive the Try Ball from PR. The TR then goes along the five defending Obstacles to score the Try in the one of the five Try Spots. After a successful Try by TR, a kick step can be taken from the Kicking Zone to make the Goal. The game continues until all the seven Kick Balls are used or when the 3 minutes passed.
After a difficult year, the team started fresh with a new strategy and updated technology. I must confess that, in the past, I had somewhat underestimated the pivotal role that effective management plays within the dynamic realm of technology. However, it was during the transformative experience of Robocon 2019 that I gained a profound appreciation for the significance of skillful team management and financial decision-making.
Managed team of 24 divided into electronics, software, and mechanical.
Trajectory planning for robots
Developed and contributed to the football kicking mechanism.
Developed and articulated an American football throwing mechanism with speed and trajectory control.
Managed $12,000 of the college grant along with various industry sponsorships amounting to more than $10,000.
Robot coordination to complete the problem statement in record time.
This was a fun year full of great learning and good memories. We won the robocon competition after 7 years, and this was our 5th Robocon title. On the left you can find a video that encapsulates our Robocon 2020 journey.
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