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ulfah Zikrina, 21, a Naval Engineering student at the University of Indonesia (UI), joined the campus’ robot boat club three years ago merely for fun and to gain more knowledge from her seniors.

However, she will fly to Virginia, the US, on June 28 to join the 9th International RoboBoat Competition to showcase her team’s Autonomous Marine Vehicle (AMV) robots, a 1.5-meter wide boat named Makara 5 and a submarine drone named Makara 6.

Zulfah, the AMV leader, will be accompanied by team member Aldwin Akbar Hermanudin, 20, a sixth-semester Computer Engineering student. The AMV team consists of 11 students from various engineering backgrounds, but due to budget constraints not all of them can go to the US.

Makara 5 is a small boat that can detect foreign objects on the water’s surface and avoid them automatically. The team finished creating Makara 5 in December 2015 after working on the project for one and a half years.

Meanwhile, it took only six months for the team to create Makara 6, which they began in June 2015. The submarine drone can dive to depths of 100 meters for four hours and can be used to observe marine life such as fish and coral reefs.

Aldwin said both Makara 5 and 6 could be used to find victims of sea accidents if the robots were provided with thermal sensors.

Tanoto Foundation executive board head Sihol Aritonang said the foundation was supporting the team in the competition and hoped for the best result. “I hope the team can inspire the young generation at all Indonesian universities to dare to show their inventions.”