Robotix (competition)


Robotix is an annual robotics and programming event that is organised by the Technology Robotix Society at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. It is held during Kshitij, the institute's annual techno-management festival. Participation is open to college students. The event gives contestants an opportunity to showcase their talents in the fields of mechanical robotics, autonomous robotics and programming.

History

Robotix started in 2001 as an in-house event for the students of IIT Kharagpur. Kunal Sinha, Saurabh Prasad and Varun Rai created the event for IDEON, the school's techno-management festival. The inaugural event hosted eight teams. In 2003, the IDEON festival was reorganized and renamed to Kshitij. Robotix is now organized under Kshitij.
Event participation has increased over the years: Robotix 2006 had 220 teams, Robotix 2007 had 546 teams, and Robotix 2008 had over 1000 teams.
Robotix celebrated its tenth edition in 2010 with an array of challenging problem statements. Robotix 2011 conducted a water surface event, R.A.F.T., in which over 250 teams participated.

Events

Events during Robotix are conducted under three categories: manual, autonomous and programming/online. In the manual events, the participant handles the robot by using a remote control. The remote system may be wired or unwired. The robot then has to perform the specified task, which is usually something mechanical. In the autonomous events, the robots act independently; participants are not allowed to control them during their run. These robots typically use programmed micro-controllers to make decisions. Some events involve more than one robot, and can be a mix of autonomous and manually controlled robots. In the programming events, the participants are given a problem statement and submit code to solve the problem; the competitors are also allowed to submit their solutions online.
The manual and autonomous events are further classified by competition type. In the solo runs, the robot team performs the tasks without other competitors in the field; they are evaluated on marking criteria such as time elapsed, goal completion, and efficiency. In the tournaments, two or more teams participate at a time, and only one team advances to the next round.

Past events

Robotix 2018

Robotix 2018 will be held from 19–21 January 2018. The events of 2018 edition are:
  1. Poles Apart: Build a manually controlled robot, which is capable of picking and placing blocks with accuracy and changing its interaxial distance to make its way through a series of hurdles.
  2. STAX: Build a robot which can rearrange blocks of different colors from a stack in a pattern by identifying the colors simultaneously moving across the stacks using line following.
  3. Fortress: Build an image processing robot that can recognize useful patterns by pattern recognition while avoiding other obstacles.

    Robotix 2017

Robotix 2017 was held from 27–29 January 2017. The events of 2017 edition are:
  1. Bomb Disposal: Build a manually controlled robot which is capable of cutting the required wires and lifting objects.
  2. B.R.I.C.K.S.: Build a robot that is capable of segregating building materials by differentiating between hollow and solid bricks by successful autonomous weight detection.
  3. Conquest: Build an image processing robot that can collect resources like food and wood from the arena while avoiding different obstacles.

    Robotix 2016

Robotix 2016 was held from 21–24 January 2016. The events of 2016 edition are:
Summit: Build a manually controlled robot capable of climbing staircases, whilst picking storing and placing objects on its way.
Sherlock: Build an autonomous robot that can decode encoded wireless signals to navigate in a featureless arena using only a digital compass.
Warehouse: Build a gesture controlled semi-autonomous robot that is capable of sorting blocks on multi-layered platforms according to their RFID tags.
S.H.E.L.D.O.N.: Build an image processing robot capable of detecting characters, using an overhead camera and traversing them such that the equation generated by the traversal fulfills a certain condition.

Robotix 2015

The events of 2015 edition are:
AugHit:Build an Image Processing robot which can play the Brick Break game.
Minefield:Build a semi-autonomous robot which is capable of moving around and clasping objects using gesture recognition and implement metal-detection autonomously.
Cascade:Build a manually controlled robot capable of traversing vertical rods while shooting terrorists and extinguishing fire.
Shipment:Build a manually controlled robot that carries out shipment of parcels from dock to vessel.
Step Up:Build an autonomous robot that is capable of traversing a grid and arranging the blocks placed on nodes in the increasing order of height.
Sudocode:Write a code to optimise your strategy to find and destroy enemy bunkers in a jungle. Write a code to find and attack enemy troops in the jungle.

Robotix 2014

Robotix 2014 was held from 31 Jan - 3 Feb 2014. The events of 2014 edition were:
Geo-Aware: Create a vision-guided robot which can use onboard video feed to navigate an environment based on an overhead image as a map.
Tremors: Build an Autonomous robot that can seek out victims present in the arena while detecting and avoiding earthquake affected vibration zones present in the arena.
Canyon Rush: Build a manually controlled robot capable of traversing an arena similar to a canyon and saving victims stranded at certain depths.
Inspiralon:Build a manually controlled robot capable of traversing a broken pipe and repairing it on the way, in this case, popping corks plugged in the pipe.
Transporter:Build an autonomous robot which can traverse a grid and place blocks in voids on the grid such that it optimises its path while completing this task.
Sudocode:SudoCode was an online coding event including different Problem Statements to be judged by an online evaluator.

Robotix 2013

Robotix 2013 was held from 1–4 February 2013. It features the following events:
Robotix 2012 was held from 27–30 January 2012. It consisted of the following events:
Robotix 2011 was held from 28–31 January 2011. It featured the following events:
The tenth edition of Robotix was held from 28–31 January 2010. All events had an X in their name to indicate ten years. The competition featured the following events:
Robotix 2009 was held from 29 January – 1 February 2009. It featured the following events:
Robotix 2008 was held from 31 January – 3 February 2008. It featured the following events, two of which were not disclosed beforehand:
Robotix 2007 was held from 1–4 February 2007. It featured the following events:
Robotix 2006 was held from 2–5 February 2006. It featured the following events:
Robotix 2008
1st Prize : Sobhan Kumar Lenka