3rd Preiļi Robotics Championship held on 26 January 2019, with Latvia’s largest robotics competition attendance!
On 26 January 2019 the third Preiļi Robotics Championship (PRC) was held at Jānis Eglītis Preiļi State Gymnasium (JEPVĢ). The aim of the competition is to popularise robotics in Latgale and the importance of the exact sciences!
This year 355 robot teams from 60 institutions/organisations/clubs were registered for the competition. Of the registered teams, 341 started, which is yet another record for the number of participants in Latvian robotics competitions! During the competition 45 prizes provided by sponsors were also won and presented, and in total places on 15 podiums were won!
This year’s competition was attended by participants not only from Latvia and Lithuania, as in previous years, but also from Belarus (Minsk)! We were delighted and honoured to host teams from neighbouring countries!
At the start of the competition the participants were welcomed by the JEPVĢ director Ligita Pauniņa, the chair of Preiļi Municipality Council Maruta Plivda and a member of the 13th Saeima, Aldis Adamovičs. Preiļi Municipality Council Certificates of Appreciation were also presented to long-standing supporters of the competition!
For the 3rd year in a row the event was made special by the host Kristaps Skutelis (kursors.lv), who commented, interviewed and entertained the competition participants most engagingly throughout the day! Kristaps has also published a short film about this year’s competition https://kursors.lv/2019/01/28/preilu-robotikas-cempionats-2019-video/ !
So that the competition could also be followed outside the competition rooms, a live video broadcast of the event was provided by “Just Production”, by Justs Ribinickis and Aivis Sudniks. A recording of the competition can be watched on the Preiļi Robotics Club’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2qj0U-IgOo).
In the competition the participants could take part with 2 types of robots – using LEGO parts, or using electronic parts, known as free structure. This year the competition took place in several events: Mini sumo, Lego sumo, iRobot sumo, Lego line following, free-structure line following, Lego Folkrace, free-structure Folkrace, Freestyle, VEX, drone competition. In some events the participants were divided into age groups (pupils, amateurs, professionals). Requirements were set for the construction of the robots regarding size and weight, and other construction restrictions and rules were also defined, as described in the rules.
In the breaks between events the participants could watch demonstration bouts of Mega sumo (3 kg) robots performed by JEPVĢ graduates Armands Upenieks and Māris Bečs, and the smallest sumo fighting robots made in Latvia – Micro sumo (5×5 cm) and Nano sumo (2.5×2.5 cm !!!) robots, built by Aleksandrs Tikačovs, a laureate of many world competitions of various scales with a wealth of prizes.
New in the 2019 PRC was the Drone competition, provided by robotics enthusiast Kārlis Pīgožņis from Rēzekne. Many participants found the drone competition very interesting!
Special THANKS:
- to the chief referees of the competition Māris Bečs and Armands Upenieks for running the competition fairly,
- to the chief referees of the competition events: line following – Linards Šmeiksts, Folkrace – Kārlis Berkolds, sumo – Gundars Miezītis, freestyle – Māris Bečs, iRobot sumo – Aldis Buks, Kārlis Pīgožņis for organising the drone competition, providing the equipment and running it successfully!
- Kristaps Skutelis, better known as @krizdabz, for excellent hosting and commentary of the event! Kristaps is a passionate expert on new technologies, whose possibilities Kursors.lv (@kursorslv), radio, TV and the press introduce.
- Tomega and Goodman group for organising the VEX event, Fizmix and Lemona for the interesting activities for pupils.
- the sound and video streaming team Justs Ribinickis and Aivis Sudniks for streaming video throughout the whole day, editing and broadcasting the most interesting moments of the competition.
- Aksels Patmalnieks and Sintija Ančeva for capturing moments of the competition in photographs!
- SIA Arka Preiļi for the tasty biscuits and the canteen cooks for lunch for the competition participants!
Members of the Preiļi Robotics Club managed to achieve good results in several events. Matīss Buks won – 1st place in the Mini sumo event in the Pro group, 2nd place and 4th place in the free-structure robot Folkrace event.
Lauris Šmeiksts won 2nd place in the free-structure Line following event in the pupils’ group. Margarita Džeriņa won 3rd place in the free-structure Line following event in the pupils’ group. Eduards Lipiniks won 3rd place in the free-structure Line following event in the students/amateurs group.
Edīte Meikulāne won 3rd place in the iRobot event and Rinalds Pākste – 4th place. Niks Kursītis and Bruno Rivža won 3rd place in VEX robot competition.
Until this year’s PRC, the Lithuanians dominated the line following event with super-fast line followers using a turbine, because Latvian robot builders had not managed to create such a robot. Members of the Preiļi Robotics Club for the first time posed competition to the Lithuanians in this event. Although they remained in 5th place in the results table, for a first competition it is a good result.
THANK YOU to the many pupils of Jānis Eglītis Preiļi State Gymnasium for their volunteer work, and to the technical staff and teachers who took part in organising the competition!
Thank you to our cooperation partners: kursors.lv, Fizmix, Robotu skola, TSI, Sigulda Creativity Centre, Just Production.
The winners of 1st–3rd places received valuable prizes, provided thanks to the competition’s sponsors and supporters: SIA Arka, Preiļu celtnieks, iRobot, Tomega, Robotiem.lv, International School of Innovation, Capital, MultiCore, Mikrotik, Letera, Lemona, Certes, Proline, Goodman group, Intrum, LMT.
Information about the competition, results.
LRT video report on the PRC 2019 competition (3 min)
Kristaps Skutelis’s (kursors.lv) film about the Preiļi Robotics Championship 2019 (20 min)
Recording of the live broadcast of the competition on the Preiļi Robotics Club’s YouTube(8 h 55 min)
On behalf of the organisers of the Preiļi Robotics Championship, Juris Erts
