T

he national robot competition held in Semarang, Central Java, recently has put the Electronic Engineering Polytechnic Institute of Surabaya (PENS) delegation as the overall winner of the competition after it won three out of four categories contested.

The three categories were the green themed contest, the wheeled fire fighter robot contest and the soccer robot contest.

The team, comprised of 25 students, also won five other best awards for robot contest best strategy, best auto-robot, leg division best design, soccer robot best design and artistic robot best design.

Fifty-five tertiary education institutions participated in the contest organized by the Semarang Dian Nuswantoro University, presenting a combined 104 teams of 424 students that were divided into four different categories.

'The winner will represent Indonesia at the international robot competition,' chairman of the contest's organizing committee, Dwiarso Utomo, said.

Of the categories, the soccer robot contest seemed to be the most popular, as 16 teams participated. The Eros team from the PENS won the category.

'We made our own robots. Each needed some Rp 70 million [US$7,100] to create them. We prepared for this contest for 20 months,' said Azhar Aulia Saputra from the Eros Team.

It was the same team that took part in the international championship in Mexico last year that placed them among the 12 best teams in the world. They will depart to the Netherlands to take part in another international competition
on June 21.

Meanwhile, the Ersion team, also from PENS, beat the RI-Vet team from the Surabaya Institute of Technology with their robot that was capable of greening the earth and 'sending tree seedlings' to the moon.

The robots in this category moved quickly to pick tree seedling symbols deposited in a number of places that symbolized the earth, and then shot them at an elevated target. The winner was the one that hit the target precisely at the highest speed.

The Ersion team will represent Indonesia in the international robot competition to be held in Vietnam, in August this year.

'This is all thanks to the solidness of the team,' PENS deputy director overseeing student affairs, Indra Adji Sulistijono, said, adding that of the 25 team members, 14 came from impoverished families and studied at the PENS on government scholarships.

'We have had plenty of experience in 15 robot competitions since 1993 and only lost in the 13th and 14th competitions,' Indra said.