In late January, the robotics club of TalTech participated in the Robotic Arena competition in Poland, where the 3 kg autonomous sumo team won the 1st place.
Baruto the sumo robot is a robot developed and assembled last year. The project was largely supported by the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering of TalTech and sponsors SKF and Alas-Kuul AS. The members of the team are
- Timothy Rähmonen (BSc in Mechatronics, currently studying Communicative Electronics at the master’s level),
- Hardi Tambets (studying Electrical Power Engineering and Mechatronics at the bachelor’s level),
- Siim Soopalu (BSc in Mechatronics, currently studying Computer and Systems Engineering at the master’s level).
Erki Meinberg, chairman of the board of the robotics club, said that although the competition was not as fierce as at Robotex in Tallinn, the event was still exciting. ‘For example, our team was able to defeat the robot that won sixteenth place at the World Cup in Japan. Thanks to the result, our team will be able to travel to Japan this December to compete with the best robots in the world,’ said Meinberg.
An autonomous drone of the robotics club also took part of the competition in Poland, but unfortunately, it was unable to compete due to damage suffered in final testing.
The Robotic Arena competition was held for the 12th time and organised by the Wrocław University of Science and Technology. 406 competitors from 12 countries competed in 18 categories.