Ancient Japanese trial of strength between 21st century robots

Ancient Japanese trial of strength between 21 ^st century robots

After two months of workshops, James Cook University’s Robotics Club will stage its next battle: a Sumo competition between robots its students and members have built over the semester.

The group was developed by a number of JCU’s Electrical and Electronic Engineering undergraduate students under the mentorship of Associate Professor Mohan Jacob.

JCU’s inaugural robot wars competition was held in March this year.

JCU Robo Club President Chris Roberts, an Electrical & Electronic Engineering undergraduate student, said after a great response to the first competition, 53 robots had been registered for tomorrow’s event.

“Tomorrow, we will be seeing the best of our competitors duking it out for supremacy,” Mr Roberts said.

There are two main categories, those that are autonomous (the robot does all the work itself) and those that are manually controlled (remote controlled robots).

Mr Roberts said the robots would be using the same chassis as last semester, and they compete on an 80 cm dohyo (sumo wrestling ring).

“This is in compliance with international miniature sumo rules. A slight relaxation to the international rules’ size restrictions has allowed certain extra physical modifications, so there are a number of robots utilising sensors to ‘see’ other robots, as well as a couple with flipper arms and what-not.”

In order to meet the international rules’ size restrictions, the robots have a 10cm x 10cm footprint, as seen in many of the large international competitions. Such competitions draw huge crowds, with audiences clamouring to see the highly entertaining spectacle.

Mr Roberts urged people to come along and have a laugh and enjoy the show.

Date: Friday 31st October, 2014

Time: 3pm

Location: Undercroft of Building 14 (Electrical and Computer Engineering), JCU Townsville

Chris Roberts, 2014 President JCU Robo Club / IEEE JCU Student Branch, m: 041 77 22 013 or e: chris@chrisroberts.com.au

JCU Media Liaison: Caroline Kaurila, tel: (07) 4781 4586 or 0437 028 175

First published October 30, 2014