Bayucaraka ITS team members Achmad Iqbal Akbari (left) and I Gusti Made A receive their SAFMC 2024 champion medals at the award ceremony on Saturday (6/4).

ITS Campus, ITS News — Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) has made another international achievement. This time, the Bayucaraka ITS team successfully defended its second place title in the Singapore Amazing Flying Machine Competition (SAFMC) 2024, Saturday (6/4).

Bayucaraka ITS General Manager, Raditya Eka Putra explained that SAFMC 2024 is the largest flying robot competition in Singapore which comes in eight categories. On this occasion, the Bayucaraka ITS team included the Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) division to compete. “This year our representatives returned to participate in the Semi-Autonomous (D1) and Autonomous (D2) categories,” said Radit.

Radit said that the Semi-Autonomous (D1) category has the challenge of controlling drones over long distances using a remote. In this competition, the Bayucaraka ITS team launched twin drones named Jati Sigma and Jati Theta. Both drones are equipped with an innovative wearable remote with a tilt sensor that can control both drones at once.

Bayucaraka ITS’s wearable remote is equipped with a tilt sensor and can control two drones at once

Furthermore, in the Semi-Autonomous category (D1) the Bayucaraka ITS team had to face off against the opposing team to complete a game of tic-tac-toe. In this challenge, explained Radit, the drone will fly across obstacles while carrying an object. Later the object must be dropped in the tic-tac-toe game arena to form a straight line to win the game.

Unlike the previous category, the Autonomous (D2) category has the challenge of controlling the drone autonomously. Radit said that in this category the Bayucaraka ITS team launched two drones named Soerongarep and Soeromburi. This series of drones is equipped with a small computer, NVIDIA Jetson Nano, and a programme that can detect the drone’s trajectory automatically.

In the Autonomous (D2) category, the two drones must work together automatically to complete the challenge. The two connected drones must scan each command tag attached along the track and perform the challenge according to the tag’s command. “The challenge is to move objects using droppers,” added the 2021 student.

Bayucaraka ITS’ Soerongarep and Soeromburi drones competing in the Autonomous (D2) category in SAFMC 2024 just before running the challenge.

The student of the Department of Electrical Engineering explained that each team had to go through a series of stages to win. Starting with the preliminary stage which was carried out online by sending progress videos and drone device trials. Followed by the peak stage, namely presentations and challenges held for two weeks since March 20 at the Science Centre Singapore.

Furthermore, in the culmination stage, each team was required to make a presentation covering drone features, strategy, innovation, and creativity, as well as showing the drone device and controls directly to the judges. At the challenge stage, teams are encouraged to complete missions in the category they are participating in. “Of course, the form of challenge is different for each competition category,” added Radit.

Radit expressed gratitude for the success of the Bayucaraka ITS team in winning second place in the two categories. Not only that, he hopes that the VTOL division can motivate other divisions to be enthusiastic about innovation. “Hopefully this innovation is not only for participating in competitions, but can also be implemented and useful in people’s lives,” he concluded hopefully. (*)

Reporter: Ahmad Naufal Ilham
Editor: Regy Zaid Zakaria
Translator: I Gusti Agung Jaya Hiswara