IO, Surabaya – Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) has again proven its excellence in the field of robotics. Unmitigated, ITS succeeded in bringing home the General Champion title at the 2020 Indonesian Flying Robot Contest (KRTI) organized by the Ministry of Education and Culture’s National Achievement Center, in collaboration with the University of Lampung (Unila), 23-31 October 2020.
Heri Suryoatmojo ST MT Ph.D., Advisor of the ITS KRTI Team, said that the ITS team had four divisions, namely the Racing Plane (RP) division, Fixed Wing (FW), Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL), and Technology Development (TD). The TD Division has three subdivisions, namely the TD Propulsion System, TD Air Frame Innovation, and the TD Flight Controller.
In the Racing Plane division, the flying robot Jatayujet_10, mainstay of the Bayucaraka Team, won second place. Unlike previous years, the implementation of the Racing Plane competition was carried out online. Participants are given the freedom to do flight tests and amass as much data as possible to send to the jury, along with a video of the plane taking off.
“In three minutes you have to produce the most laps. We managed to complete seven rounds, losing very narrowly to ITB, which managed eight laps,” said Heri, in a release received by the Independent Observer, Sunday (1/11/2020).
ITS could have gotten better results, but during the trial, there was a brisk crosswind, so their plane could not pass with precision. “Next year, if the race is still the same, we will improve our strategy to get a good lap by adjusting the route of the plane and considering the wind direction,” he said.
Meanwhile, the VTOL division managed to rise to first place, after the 2019 KRTI in which it had to settle for second place. The Soeromiber team, which is the name of the division team, must compete to deliver a load using the drone at three points determined by a guide, in the form of a QR Code. The points are determined randomly by lottery. The match was held directly through a Zoom Meeting.
Competitions are made more difficult because they are held indoors, so a Global Positioning System (GPS) cannot be used. However, the Soeromiber team was able to win all matches in every round consistently. It did not stop there: this team is the only team that could complete its mission in full with the fastest recorded time of 50 seconds, leaving its competitors behind by a huge margin.
The Bayusuta team, which is the name of the TD division team, won the title in each competition subdivision. Like the previous year, this time the Bayusuta Team won first place in TD Air Frame Innovation. With a hybrid airplane made from balsa and plywood that can take off and land vertically, the Bayusuta team managed to make a good presentation and demo perfectly. Bayusuta also won first place in the TD Flight Controller. In this category, the team had to build a drone that could be controlled simultaneously and independently.
Similar results were also obtained in the TD Propulsion System subdivision in which it has never participated. To take part in it, the team presented an innovation of a propeller made from coconut fibers. “This year we just joined it and managed to get one appreciation trophy,” said Heri.
In the Fixed Wing division, the Anaryadirga team had to settle for only being able to complete the mission. The aircraft made by this team had to fly as far as five kilometers to carry out aerial mapping and monitoring and was observed directly by the jury, through Zoom. The aircraft was required to drop a load of half a kilogram at the predetermined coordinate points. “So you can see how many meters the accuracy is, how much error is from the predetermined coordinate point.”
Heri assessed that the Anaryadirga team was not 100 percent ready because of the large number of tasks that had to be done. Besides, there was an error in interpreting the instructions from the jury. The mapping of this division is still poor because the team spent time observing the area. “The important thing is to do the correct mapping and monitoring following aerial mapping science. That’s a big mistake,” he said.
Asked about other obstacles, the most important obstacle was the pandemic. Due to the pandemic, the number of team members who could gather at the ITS Robotics Center Building are limited, because they have to follow existing protocols. Besides, many team members could not come to Surabaya because of parental consent. “Like the Air Frame. The demo was in Depok and the presentation in Surabaya.”
However, Heri is quite satisfied with the achievements of the ITS team at KRTI 2020, because for the first time, ITS was able to win an overall title. According to him, this is the culmination of extraordinary efforts by the ITS flying robot team. “In the future, we must be able to maintain it and be more enthusiastic to develop innovative ideas and strategies. Frankly speaking, maintaining it is more difficult than fighting over it,” he added. (est)