Open competition in robotics was held at PetrSU

The VI Open Republican Competition in Educational and Sports Robotics – RoboSkills 2021 was held simultaneously with the Practical Robotics Olympiad TechnoRoboCom, the traditional annual competition of Petrozavodsk State University.
The organizers of the competition were Petrozavodsk State University, Children’s Technopark “Quantorium Sampo”, Lyceum No. 1, RoboSkills community.

140 teams from all over Russia, as well as one from Germany, took part. In total, 15 regions of Russia were represented: the Republic of Bashkortostan, Bryansk region, Vologda region, Republic of Karelia, Kirov region, Krasnodar region, Republic of Mordovia, Moscow, Moscow region, Nizhny Novgorod region, Omsk region, Orenburg region, Penza region, St. -Petersburg, Khabarovsk Territory, Chelyabinsk Region. Participants live in 26 cities and towns.

213 schoolchildren, students and adults interested in technical creativity and science took part in 10 types of competitions and one photo competition.

Applications were submitted from 29 different educational organizations and family teams.

The Republic of Karelia was represented by 103 participants and 21 leaders, of which 40 became winners and prize-winners, teams from Petrozavodsk, Vilga village, Lendery village, Novaya Vilga village participated. Teams of winners from Karelia were prepared at the Petrovsky Palace, Petrozavodsk PKU, Another extension, Petrozavodsk State University, Quantorium “Sampo”, Robotics With Soul, Robotics Circle Lyceum No. 1.

It was possible to participate in person, online and in absentia. The form of participation depended on the type of competition.

This year there were three directions in the TechnoRoboCom practical robotics Olympiad: solving Lego MindStorms problems (grades 4-9), solving Arduino problems (schoolchildren, students), solving Raspberry PI problems (schoolchildren, students).

The Lego track was asked to solve five problems. Each had to come up with an unusual design or mechanism, or write a program to control the EV3 microcomputer, demonstrate skills in working with a constructor. All the guys wrote programs in the EV3-G language. The work of online participants was checked by videoconference.

Arduino problem solving for face-to-face participants took place on equipment provided by the organizers, and online participants used tinkercad to assemble and program the required circuits. The tasks touched upon circuitry, issues of coding and transmission of information, the creation of various devices. All tasks were connected by one theme “Space travel”.

For those who have just started working with Arduino, the MGBOT company from St. Petersburg held a workshop. The company manufactures equipment for working with the Internet of Things. The company’s specialists immersed the guys from Petrozavodsk into the problem. In the final task, the participants were able to make a telegram bot to turn on heating when the temperature drops, and ventilation when it exceeds preset values.

The workshop was held for students and high school students to work with Raspberry PI. It was prepared specially for the competition by the Artificial Intelligence Center of PetrSU .

Participants in practice were able to detect a contrasting object in the video image and learned a lot about working with a single board computer, which is widely used for prototyping mobile robots and equipment.

After a long break due to the pandemic, face-to-face competitions in sports robotics became especially desirable for the children. Autonomous passage of the line gathered the largest number of participants. The automatic time fixing system was provided by a company from St. Petersburg, which produces equipment for car competitions.

Capture the Flag competition was exciting. The polygon for this type of competition is a set of separate cubes, which are randomly assembled into an obstacle course; several organizations participated in its creation at once: Another extension, Petrovsky Palace, Quantorium “Sampo”. We hope that by the next competition the set of cubes will only expand. The “Rally of robots” was carried out according to the simplified regulations of the “Robofinist” festival, but the main requirement was observed, only real mini-cars could participate in it, namely four-wheeled cars with rear, front or all-wheel drive and steering front wheels, and the steering wheels should not have be installed on one axis and the rotation of the robot had to be carried out by turning the steering wheels, like a car.

For the first time, the competition included disciplines related to programming, which were held online. The younger children were asked to create a creative project on Scratch in one hour. They learned the topic of the project only at the competitions, so no homework, only their own ideas and creative ideas. 37 teams presented their works on the “game of hide and seek”. One participant from Germany took part in this competition, who took 3rd place.

The Python Programming track was entirely conducted by the PetrSU Programmers Creativity Club . Problems were proposed that young robotics often have to solve.

The creative competition was traditionally held by the 1C: Programmers Club . The competitions were held online, which allowed the guys from Krasnodar to join the defense of projects.

The most creative participants created videos for the correspondence competition “Mechanics of Motion”. The winner was a culinary robot who knows how to cook pancakes himself. Among the winners are also a robot-assistant for feeding a cat and a donation machine created by the guys from the Muezersky House of Creativity.

The most successful creative projects are recommended to participate in all-Russian and interuniversity events and competitions.

At Roboskills 2021, the social partners of the event were the following companies: Another extension, 1C: Programmers Club (Petrozavodsk), Citylink, Optisoft, and the information partner was Entertaining Robotics.

17 volunteer first-year students of the Institute of Economics and Law and the Pedagogical College, engineering volunteers of the Quantorium “Sampo”, who kept order on the grounds and helped in refereeing, helped to conduct the competition.

The preparation of problems was carried out by the joint efforts of specialists from Petrozavodsk State University: the Department of Applied Mathematics and Cybernetics, the Children’s Youth Center (DYC), the Children’s Technopark “Quantorium Sampo”, the Petrovsky Palace.

31 people were involved in refereeing. All of them showed exceptional professionalism, teamwork skills and extremely high stress resistance.

More than 30 people took part in organizing and conducting the event.

The event takes place within the framework of the career guidance work of PetrSU, is included in the plan of scientific and practical activities of PetrSU for 2021.