ITS Robotics Team who competed in KRI 2020 at the ITS Robotics Center Building

ITS Campus, ITS News – To further solidify its reputation in the field of robotics, the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) managed to again unfurl the beloved alma mater flag as the General Champion at the 2020 Indonesian Robot Contest (KRI). In its third year of becoming General Champion, ITS won a total of nine awards at the national event held virtually from 16 – 23 November 2020.

KRI is an annual national-scale competition held by the Directorate General of Higher Education (Dikti) of the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemdikbud) RI. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 KRI was held in an online format. In this event, ITS sent five robot teams that competed in eight competition categories. Among others, the Rival Team, Team Ichiro, Team Iris, Team Vi-Rose, and Team Abinara-1.

Of the eight competition categories that were participated in, ITS managed to win nine titles from seven categories. Maintaining the previous year’s achievement, Iris Team won first place in the Wheeled Football Robot category again. Not only that, in the competition category, the Iris Team also won the award for the best design.

Besides, there was also the Vi-Rose Team who maintained their achievements in the top three by winning second place in the Indonesian Dance Robot category. There was also the Ichiro Team which made it to the top ranks in the three competition categories that were followed. Among other things, second place in the Humanoid Robot category of Dribbling the ball, second place in the Humanoid Robot Cooperation category, and third place in the Humanoid Robot Running category

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The venue for the implementation of the ITS Robotics Team competition at the ITS Robotics Center Building

In the ABU Indonesia Robot competition category, the Rival Team successfully won the first prize and was named the winner of the Best Strategy award. As if they were not satisfied with their achievements, the Rival Team also won the Practical and Safe category in the competition category specifically designed during this pandemic, namely the Thematic Robot for Handling Covid-19. Of all the awards won, ITS managed to become the university in Indonesia that has collected the most General Champion titles throughout the history of KRI.

The Rival Team Supervisor, Muhammad Lukman Hakim ST MT, said that from the start, the ITS Robotics Team had aimed to achieve as many achievements as possible and become General Champion for the third time at KRI 2020. In this case, the team has made the best possible preparation and always raises the standard for team points. “Because the competition is held online, we do not face the opponent directly so all we can do is fight ourselves,” he said.

The lecturer at the Department of Industrial Mechanical Engineering admitted that any achievements obtained in the previous week’s training would try to beat the week after. He and the team consider this previous achievement to be an opponent’s achievement that must be surpassed. “With this principle, our team is not complacent and continues to make improvements and improvisations until the match day arrives,” he admitted.

In carrying out the preparation for the competition, the Robotics Team centrally did it at the ITS Robotics Center Building for three months. However, for the Rival Team who competed in the Covid-19 Thematic Robot Contest category, they worked in their respective homes. “This is because the competition system is in the form of a robot concept that is contained in videos and presentations only,” explained Fajar Budiman ST MSc, the supervisor of the Rival Team for that category.

The 2020 Indonesian Robot Contest which was held online, it was seen that ITS Ichiro Team was competing in the Humanoid Robot competition category

Successfully winning the General Champion title means that the ITS Robotics Team has gone through various obstacles in the preparation process. One of them was the change in the schedule for the competition and there was a discourse to be eliminated so that the students who were members of the team had already returned to their respective homes.

“It turned out that the competition was still held in a different format, so we were at a loss in repairing the robot and preparing the field for online competitions,” said Muhammad Hilman Fathoni ST MT, the supervisor of the Vi-Rose Team, added.

Regarding its implementation, the KRI 2020 online is carried out by broadcasting robots on each campus. By taking turns, each team will be summoned by the Jury which is centered at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) via the Zoom application, then the impressions from each team will be watched together by the Jury and viewers via Youtube and Zoom. From this process, the fastest, most accurate, and the best robot will be seen. After that, the ranking is carried out based on the specified criteria.

The concern that arises from this online format system is the problem of internet networks, both on the ITS campus and at the committee location. Luckily, the internet network provided by the campus is very adequate for the competition. “Although there were some minor problems, thankfully they did not affect the performance of our robot,” explained the Iris Team supervisor, Rudy Dikairono ST MT.

An award is given to ITS for the achievement of the General Champion at KRI 2020

Also, to minimize the spread of Covid-19, the Robotics Team implemented the Covid-19 standard health protocol by implementing distancing, washing hands, and wearing masks. This is also supported by ITS by preparing protocols and facilitating free rapid tests and swab tests to monitor the health of ITS Robotics Team members.

However, this achievement became the best gift at ITS’s 60th Anniversary celebration. This achievement also complements the presentation of the ITS Robotics Team to the alma mater after previously being the General Champion in the 2020 Indonesian Flying Robot Contest (KRTI) and the 2020 National Unmanned Fast Boat Contest (KKCTBN).

Furthermore, the coach of the Abinara-1 Team, Ahmad Zaini ST MT, stated that this result was a joint achievement of all ITS academics. Selected students who are involved in the ITS Robotics Team are educated by all lecturers at ITS. In the preparation and manufacture, a team of mentors who have experience in the achievements of national and international robots is present.

On the other hand, for the matter of preparation, the team was supported by the ITS Robotics Center under the ITS Directorate of Innovation and Science Technology Area (DIKST). Meanwhile, in terms of costs, it gets full support from the ITS Directorate of Student Affairs. “Plus for the internet network, we get full support from the Directorate of Technology Development and Information Systems (DPTSI) ITS,” he added.

On the same occasion, Muhtadin ST MT as the Ichiro Team coach hopes that in the coming year this competition will be more crowded and can work together with other campus teams to advance Indonesian robotics to be able to compete in the international arena. “What is more important is how we can work together in implementing robotics technology to solve problems in Indonesia in general and specifically,” he concluded. (tri/ris/ITS Public Relations)

The Iris Team, one of the ITS Robotics Teams, won first place in the Wheeled Football Robot category