Indian team secures second position in World Robot Olympiad

A team from India — High Voltage — secured the second position at the 13th World Robot Olympiad’s finals on Sunday. The team — Jainil Ajmera and Prakhar Mittal from DPS, Gurgaon, and Abhimanyu Deb Singh, from Pathways in Gurgaon — won the award for creating a robot that identifies recyclable waste and dumps it in the garbage bin.

Their coach, Varun Mayanger, said, “We worked really hard on this model. The robot identifies colour of Lego bricks, which is a representation of selective garbage that is to be dumped in the garbage bin. We hope this model becomes a reality soon. It will be a great help for municipalities.”

A spokesperson for the event said,“The team won the award in the Waste Sorting category. They secured the second position as their robots identified, picked and dumped recyclable waste. The idea of such robots will help municipal services.”

Over 2,000 students from 51 countries participated in the 13th World Robot Olympiad, a two-day event organised at Greater Noida’s Expo Mart. The theme for the Olympiad was ‘Rap the Scrap’, where participants were to find innovative ideas to recycle and manage waste.

“We witnessed some path-breaking ideas and prototypes as the students employed innovative ways to design and programme autonomous robots to complete different tasks in lesser time. We believe this competition must have been a tremendous learning experience for all the participants and will play an important role in shaping their careers. Our best wishes are with all the participants,” said AS Manekar, director general, National Council of Science Museum.

The completion was held for students in 9-25 age group. The participants presented miniature models of robots that can help in municipal service, garbage disposal, recycling of debris and waste, making compost from organic waste and other innovations.

“Many of the ideas at the Olympiad will become a foundation for projects that will change the world,” said Manekar.