he Republic’s Open Competition for Educational Robotics has gathered over 200 participants.

The partner of the event is the Opti-Soft company (IT-Park of PetrSU) that employs many teachers of our university. At the opening, Anton Shabaev, the director of the company, welcomed the participants.

The main organizers of the event: Tatiana Surovtseva (Department of Applied Mathematics and Cybernetics), Maria Davydova (Ilmarinen laboratory), the Rovesnik resource center.

The venue for the competition was provided by the Institute of Physics and Technology. All the participants were divided into 15 disciplines that included both traditional events: speed race, remote control football and sumo, and educational and creative contests.

For the first time, the event featured competition of remote control quadcopters. The confident victory with three prize places was secured by the members of the “Eyas of Karelia” team representing the Art Center No.2, which trains at the Ilmarinen laboratory. The pilots had to compete in slalom competition and demonstrate their landing skills.

The intellectual sumo 15x15 had 16 teams divided into four groups. Those who qualified from the group got to a playoff. Football battles gathered 8 teams. The participants had to work in a team consisting of two robots and their operators, interact with each other in defense and offense.

Races were held on two tracks on 50 and 15 mm. The winners were the Arduino- and Huno-powered robots, though many robots fell out of the race not reacting quick enough to make a turn at a great speed. The labyrinth challenge hasn’t been completed by anyone, as no robot managed to find the shortest way. There were few contestants in the corridor rally event.

The World Robot Olympiad events haven’t attracted many participants which mean that these competitions are too difficult for our schoolchildren and there is still a lot to learn in constructing and programming.

The creative event was entertaining. The competition was held in three age groups. Each project had to be defended using presentation materials and a teaser: a presentation and a video about the project. The contest was held under the supervision of the Neosystems Company that engaged specialists in electronics, robotics, and programming as the judges of the event.

The 3rd and 4th-grade pupils competed in the Robot WeDo event, where they constructed a robot according to the task and programmed it. The partner of this event was the Erudit educational and development center.

The spectators had an opportunity to participate in two workshops “Using Strela Platform in Robotics” held by Klim Belchennkov, and a workshop for 6-10 years old children “Robotics + Modeling 101” held by Victor Knodel (Children’s Center “Different After-School Club”).

The Museum of Creative Science of PetrSU performed at the closing ceremony.                           

The organizers of the events thank the jury headed by Aleksandr Borodin, with most of the juries being the Master Degree students of the Robotics program, the students of the Institute of Mathematics and Information Technologies, as well as the students of the Institute of Physics and Technology. The students of the Institute of Economics and Law and the Institute of Physic and Technology helped as volunteers.