Jun 27 2022

"The Robocon Project (Science and Technology Club)," a group in the Fabrication Project course offered by the Education Center for Engineering and Technology of the Faculty of Engineering, Niigata University, participated in NHK Student Robocon 2022, held at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo on Sunday, June 12. An audience was present for the first time in three years.

The task for the 2022 competition was inspired by "Lagori," an outdoor team game, which has been popular with people in India for many years. The game is between two teams (Team 1: "Seeker" and Team 2: "Hitter") and the game starts by throwing a ball by the seeker to break a stone tower called "Lagori." While the seekers try to pile up the stones again, the hitter throws balls to interrupt them. Each competing team builds two robots, breaks down urethane foam discs which resemble a stone tower, and piles them up again within 90 seconds. During the time, they must avoid being hit by balls which were fired from the robots of the opposing team. A new rule allowing the contestants to fire balls at the opposing team was adopted for the first time in a student competition. It made the actual game more strategic, as it enabled the robots to change their movements depending on the situation.

In the qualifying round, the team of NU students played against the Kyoto Institute of Technology twice, winning one and losing one, and made it to the final tournament (final six), on goal difference. This is the second year in a row that they advanced to the final tournament. They lost to the Toyohashi University of Technology, this year’s winner, in the final tournament, however; they were awarded a special prize from Toyota Motor Corporation, as the idea of storing discs in a partition inside robots and loading them all at once was highly evaluated.