ABU Robocon 2012 was hosted by Hong-Kong. The contest was entitled “Peng on Dai Gat – In Pursuit of Peace and Prosperity”. The theme of the competition was based on Jiao-festival (Bun Mountain festival) held every year in Cheung Chau island of Hong-Kong. As the main event of the festival athletes scramble up one of the towers in a tough contest of both intellect and physique, to grab the top-most ‘luckiest’ buns as told in traditions so as to achieve “Peng On Dai Gat”, meaning peace and prosperity. In a similar fashion, robots had to pick up buns from a bun tower, separated in three layers, and put them in a basket.
Three robots were required for the competition, Manual Robot, Automatic Robot and Collector Robot; dubbed Natraj, Ganesh and Machhindra respectively. An operator rides on the Manual Robot, passes through a narrow tunnel, carries the Collector Robot and unloads it onto the Automatic Robot. The Automatic Robot then carries the Collector Robot up through a ramp, to a stairway, where the Collector Robot climbs to reach the Island where the Bun Tower is located, grabs a Bun, drops it in a Basket, and come back for more; all by itself.
Our Manual Robot used one-wheeled drive with manual steering, and motor/pneumatic systems to pick and drop various objects (including the Collector Robot) as per the game’s theme. The Automatic Robot used line tracking and position/velocity feedback control for navigation. The Collector Robot used folding legs – stair climbing mechanism and chain drive for climbing the stairs and moving along the Island. It used pneumatic systems for grabbing and dropping the Buns, along with encoder and proximity sensors to determine their position and detect them, respectively.
The Manual Robot was operated by Achyut Poudel (also the team leader), the Automatic Robot was operated by Rakesh Shrestha and the Collector Robot was operated by Rabin Dhakal. Our team defeated Sri Lanka in the competition and garnered praise for building the Robots mostly from discarded scrap materials.
List of team members:
1. Achyut Poudel (Team Leader)
2. Rakesh Shrestha
3. Rabin Dhakal
4. Winner Shrestha
5. Rabin Nankhwa
6. Ram Raj Khanal
7. Purnima Mulmi
8. Sapin Bajracharya
9. Kedarmani Bhandari
10. Sulav Malla
11. Suyash Chand
12. Jiwan Khatiwoda
13. Ashesh Babu Timilsina
14. Sikhar Rai
15. Sumit Yadav
16. Aaditya Neupane