“Preiļi Robotics Club” team successfully takes part in Estonia (Tallinn) at the biggest robotics competition in Northern Europe, “Robotex 2016”!
From 2 to 4 December 2016 a team of 9 participants from the “Preiļi Robotics Club” took part in the biggest robotics competition in Northern Europe, “Robotex 2016”! Preiļi and Latvia were represented by: Matīss Buks (JEPVĢ, 10.V), Matīss Dambītis (JEPVĢ, 12.D), Ilja Isajevs (JEPVĢ, 11.D), Iļja Martinovs (JEPVĢ, 10.D), Toms Teodors Vilcāns (JEPVĢ, 10.D), Armands Upenieks (PVĢ graduate, RTU student, team consultant), Linards Šmeiksts (PVĢ graduate, RTU student, team consultant), Aldis Buks (parents’ representative) and Juris Erts (team leader).
The mission of the competition is to raise children’s and young people’s interest in science and encourage them to study engineering, as well as to develop robotics technologies and build cooperation between people and companies that are interested in this cooperation.
This year 1137 robots were registered for Robotex (!!!), with 2662 participants from various European countries, competing in 23 different competition events. This year 6 new competition events were added, including VEX, a drone competition and the most surprising of all – the “Robotex 2016 University of Mind Control” contest, which is intended for the development and popularisation of BCI (brain-computer interface) technologies. The contest required programming a communication system between a brain scanner and a robot.
Our team’s representatives took part in 3 events (MiniSumo, Line following, Folkrace) and achieved good results – only a little sporting luck was missing to reach the podium!
On Saturday the MiniSumo and Line following competitions took place, in which all 8 participants took part!
In the MiniSumo competition 64 robots fought for victory! The participants were divided into eight 8 sub-groups. To our delight, 5 of ours won the preliminaries and qualified for the semi-final – Matīss Buks, Iļja Martinovs, Linards Šmeiksts, Aldis Buks, Armands Upenieks, i.e. they made the best 16. In the semi-final the best result in the MiniSumo competition was achieved by Matīss Buks’s robot – “Maksis”, winning shared 5th place!
There was also a fierce fight in the line following competition – 85 line following robots fought for victory! From ours, Matīss Dambītis and Linards Šmeiksts took part in this event, each with 2 competition robots! 30 robots qualified for the second round of the competition, including both of ours! It should be added that ours were the only ones from Latvia to qualify for the second round! In the overall standings the best results among ours were shown by Linards Šmeiksts’s robots `Vektors` finishing in 19th place and Korektors – in 21st place, while Matīss Dambītis with the robot “Murciélago” settled comfortably between the results shown by both of Linards’s robots, winning 20th place!
Sunday turned out to be rich in emotions and nerve-racking, when the Folkrace robot constructors went to the start! Linards Šmeiksts, Matīss Buks, Ilja Isajevs and Toms Teodors Vilcāns took part in this event. Matīss even started with 3 robots! In this event too the competition was strong – 80 robots went to the start!
In this event the robots were divided into sub-groups of 5 participants. To fight for victory one had to win one’s sub-group! Only Matīss Buks’s robot “Morics V4” managed this task successfully. In the second round of the competition – the semi-final – 16 robots competed (one from each sub-group). The semi-final run turned out to be very nerve-racking, but successful – Matīss’s robot won a place in the final!
It was pleasant to see how, before the final run, 4 participants were interviewed in the TTÜ sports arena – of them 3 Latvians, including two members of the Sigulda team, one Estonian and our Matīss! In the final run, like our athletes at the Olympic Games, Matīss Buks’s robot “Morics V4” also lacked sporting luck and had to settle for a place just behind the podium – 4th place! Still, it must be said that 4th place among 80 competing robots is also a very good performance.
A friendly atmosphere prevailed at the competition, despite the competition between teams. We are glad for every success of the Latvian participants! The Sigulda team showed excellent performance in the Folkrace event, winning 1st and 2nd places! It should be added that the Sigulda team members had deserved it with their persistent work over several years! Although we were left with the aftertaste of 4th place, that does not prevent us from being glad for our colleagues’ performance!
It was also a pleasure to see on the podium the MiniSumo robot constructor Aleksandrs Tikačovs from Robotu skola, who on his own took 1st, 2nd and 3rd places! Participants from Valmiera Viesturs Secondary School won 1st and 3rd places in the iRobotSumo event. Participants from Robotu skola won the MegaSumo event!
Thank you to all members of the Preiļi team for the work put into preparing for the competition, especially our graduate consultants Armands Upenieks and Linards Šmeiksts and the parents’ representative Aldis Buks! Thank you for the cooperation to the RTU Robotics Club and Robotu skola, especially Māris Bečs, Gundars Miezītis, Einārs Deksnis!
Participants in the Robotex 2016 competition from the Preiļi Robotics Club, Robotu skola and Lithuania
The Robotex results give additional motivation to work even more persistently, and then the results will follow. Now we must prepare for the TSI robotics competition on 17 December. On 28 January the “Preiļi Robotics Championship” is planned to be organised!
The Preiļi Robotics Club has been operating at the Jānis Eglītis Preiļi State Gymnasium since February 2015, in cooperation with the Preiļi Children and Youth Centre and the IT centre of the district council. Activities in the field of robotics would not be possible without the financial support of the Preiļi District Council.
Information: PVĢ photo gallery, Robotex video gallery
Juris Erts, head of the Preiļi Robotics Club
