Preiļi Robotics Club members achieve excellent results at the largest robotics competition “Robotex 2018”
From 30 November to 2 December 2018 in Tallinn, Estonia, a team from the Preiļi Robotics Club took part in the world’s largest robotics competition “Robotex 2018”. As the organisers themselves write on https://robotex.international: “Robotex International is an annual event and the largest robotics festival on the planet. Thousands of engineers, executives, students and families gather to be inspired by industry leaders, get to know new companies, build robots for various challenges and learn about the latest technology innovations.” In total 1750 robots took part in Robotex this year, in 25 different competition events.
At this year’s Robotex competition the Preiļi Robotics Club was represented by Matīss and Aldis Buks and Armands Upenieks. We took part in 2 events – Minisumo and Folkrace, and 1st place was won in each! Two first places at a competition of this level is a very good result for our club 🙂
In the Minisumo event the competition is held with robots no more than 10 cm wide and long, whose main aim is to push the opponent out of a ring 77 cm in diameter. Tension reigned from the first round of the competition to the last, and passions ran high at the rings throughout the competition. With the support of the whole team, after fierce fights the robot of Matīss Buks and Armands Upenieks managed to win 1st place!
The Folkrace competition also turned into a real thriller, because the robots from Sweden, Estonia and Latvia were fast and competitive enough. In the Folkrace competition the robots have to drive along a track 1 m wide in the indicated direction. The winner is the one who completes the most laps in a set time. Various obstacles are placed on the track, and the unpredictable behaviour of the other robots makes driving harder. It should be added that the robots are not controlled by a remote control, but move using a pre-written program, processing data obtained with sensors. After the group qualifying rounds and the final run, 1st place was won by the Folkrace robot built by Matīss and Aldis Buks!
Armands Upenieks, Matīss Buks and Māris Bečs (a Preiļi State Gymnasium graduate) with the support of Robotu skola built a Mega sumo robot, with which they took part in the competition and won an honourable but painful 4th place! They were only a little short of luck for the result to be worth a podium place. Representatives of Europe’s strongest teams from Romania and Poland took part in the Megasumo event.
We are delighted with the results achieved and with the fact that Preiļi robotics enthusiasts Armands Upenieks, Matīss and Aldis Buks and Māris Bečs have joined forces to pleasantly surprise us with good results at competitions of various levels. We wish them luck in developing their next robots!
Participation in the competition was possible thanks to the financial support of Preiļi Municipality Council and Jānis Eglītis Preiļi State Gymnasium.
The Robotex video recording on YouTube gives an idea of what happened at the competition.
Juris Erts, head of the Preiļi Robotics Club team
