ITS Soeromiber Bayucaraka team receiving the Judge’s Commendation Award at SAFMC 2022

ITS Campus, ITS News –Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) has again shown its fangs in the international arena in the field of robotics. This time, the ITS Bayucaraka flying robot team won three championship titles in the competition, Singapore Amazing Flying Machine Competition (SAFMC) 2022, organized by the Defense Science Organization (DSO) National Laboratories and Science Center in collaboration with the Singapore Ministry of Defence.

Team supervisor Bayucaraka ITS Atar Fuady Babgei ST MSc said SAFMC is a prestigious flying robot contest held in eight categories and is participated by students from elementary school to college. “From various categories, ITS participated in two of them and won 2nd place in the Semi-Autonomous (D1), Autonomous (D2), and Judge’s Commendation Award categories,” explained Atar.

The competition held for five days. Starting last Tuesday (12/4), at the Singapore Expo, the ITS Bayucaraka Team sent a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) division named the Soeromiber Team focused on developing the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) type Copter capable of flying and landing vertically. There were five people from the team who were dispatched to Singapore from the existing 12 personnel.

The arrival of the ITS Soeromiber Bayucaraka Team at Juanda Airport Surabaya after successfully winning three champions in Singapore

Furthermore, Atar explained that in the Semi-Autonomous (D1) category, the ITS Bayucaraka Team managed to get 2nd place and the Judge’s Commendation Award for successfully displaying a performance that attracted the attention of the jury. “ITS is the only one who gets the opportunity for demos and exhibitions in front of the Minister of Defense, universities, and leading technology companies in Singapore,” he said proudly.

The challenge in the Semi-Autonomous (D1) category is controlling an indoor drone using a wearable device to deliver goods through a series of mazes and obstacles. The Soeromiber Team was further divided into Team A and Team B in this category. Team A advanced by moving the drone which was controlled by hand gestures, and Team B by moving the drone using wearable gloves.

Properties of gloves used by the ITS Bayucaraka Team in the Semi-Autonomous (D1) category competition in Singapore

The challenges in the Autonomous (D2) category are coordinating two or more drones that are connected by ropes to carry out missions to deliver goods through obstacles. The ITS Soeromiber Bayucaraka team created two indoor drones with a program to move drones autonomously. One of the drones will act as a pathfinder, and the other drone can adjust its position to stay behind while balancing the items being carried.

The drone that the Bayucaraka team competed within the D2 category at SAFMC 2022

Not only that, lecturer Department of Biomedical Engineering ITS explained that the stage participation in this competition starts from the administrative selection stage. Furthermore, a learning journey document and a pre-challenge video were carried out and closed with a presentation of the work. “Thank God we were able to qualify and were invited and compete in Singapore with the best teams in Southeast Asia,” he said gratefully.

Furthermore, Atar revealed that although SAFMC is an annual routine activity, this is the first time for the ITS Bayucaraka Team to take part in the competition. Of course, there are challenges faced during the preparation and implementation of activities. “The main difficulty we faced was related to funding at the beginning, but after that, we got a total prize that was commensurate with that,” he said.

Three championship medals won by the ITS Soeromiber Bayucaraka Team in SAFMC 2022

Even so, Atar admitted that he was quite satisfied with the results achieved by the ITS Soeromiber Bayucaraka Team at SAFMC 2022. He hopes that the ITS Bayucaraka Team does not only think about winning and does not stop at competitions but can develop technology as a solution to existing problems. “Regardless of the winner, we enter this competition to learn. I keep trying to convince the team to keep trying to give their best,” said Atar. (ITS Public Relation)

Reporter: Rayinda Santriana US