IO, Surabaya – Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) became the overall champion of the 2020 Indonesian Robot Contest (KRI), held virtually on November 16-23. KRI is an annual national-scale competition held by the Directorate General of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Culture. In consideration of the Covid-19 pandemic, KRI 2020 was implemented in an online format.
In the third year of its securing the overall championship, ITS bagged a total of nine awards from seven categories. They sent five robot teams to compete in eight competition categories: the Rival Team, Ichiro Team, Iris Team, Vi-Rose Team, and Abinara-1 Team.
Maintaining the previous year’s achievements, the Iris Team won first place in the Wheeled Football Robot category and the Best Strategy award, while the Vi-Rose Team maintained its achievement in the top three by winning second place in the Indonesian Dance Robot category. Meanwhile, the Ichiro Team managed to enter the top rank in the three competition categories: second place in the Humanoid Robot Dribbling category, second place in the Humanoid Robot Cooperation category, and third place in the Humanoid Robot Running category.
In the ABU Indonesia Robot competition category, the Rival Team successfully won the first prize and was named the winner of the Best Strategy award. The Rival Team also won the Practical and Safe category in the competition category specifically designed during this pandemic, “Thematic Robot for Handling Covid-19”.
ITS is the Indonesian university with the most general titles throughout the history of KRI. Rival Team Supervisor Muhammad Lukman Hakim said that from the start the ITS Robotics Team had aimed to win as many titles as possible and become the overall champion for the third time at KRI 2020.
“We have endeavored to deliver the best possible results and continuously raises the standard of team points. Since the competition is held online, we do not face opponents directly so what we can do is compete internally,” he said in a release received by the Independent Observer, Wednesday (25/11/2020).
The lecturer at the Department of Industrial Mechanical Engineering admitted that any achievements obtained in the previous week’s training would be used to gain a competitive advantage in the week after that. The team consider this previous achievement to mark an opponent’s performance, one that must be surpassed. “With this principle, our team is not complacent and continues to make improvements and improvisations until the match day arrives.”
In carrying out preparation for the competition, the Robotics Team endeavored at the ITS Robotics Center Building for three months. However, the Rival Teams who competed in the Covid-19 Thematic Robot Contest category worked in their respective homes. “The competition system is in the form of a robot concept that is contained in videos and presentations only,” said Fajar Budiman, the supervisor of the Rival Team for that category.
Success in winning the overall title means that the ITS Robotics Team has overcome various obstacles in preparation, one being a change in the format of the competition. “It turned out that the competition was still held in a different format, so we were at a loss in repairing the robot and preparing the field for the online competition,” said Muhammad Hilman Fathoni, the supervisor of the Vi-Rose Team.
KRI 2020 online is carried out by broadcasting robots on each campus. Taking turns, each team is summoned via the Zoom application by a Jury centralized at the Bandung Institute of Technology; then, the videos of each team will be watched together by the Jury and viewers, via YouTube and Zoom. The fastest, most accurate, and best-performing robot will be selected. After that, a ranking is determined, based on the specified criteria.
The concern that arises from this online format system is the problem of internet networks, both on the ITS campus and at committee locations. Luckily, the internet networks provided by the campus is quite adequate for the competition. “Although there were some minor problems, thankfully they did not affect the performance of our robots,” said Iris Team supervisor Rudy Dikairono.
To prevent the spread of Covid-19, the Robotics Team implemented the standard Covid-19 health protocol by implementing distancing, washing hands, and wearing masks. ITS prepares protocols and facilitates free rapid tests and swab tests to monitor the health of ITS Robotics Team members.
All of these achievements became the best gifts from ITS Robotics Team for ITS’s 60th Anniversary celebration, after also becoming overall champions in the 2020 Indonesian Flying Robot Contest (KRTI) and the 2020 National Unmanned Fast Boat Contest (KKCTBN). (est)