ITS Polytechnic wins Indonesian robot contest

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A.I.syah, a robot designed by a team from the Sepuluh November Institute of Technology (ITS) Polytechnic in Surabaya, won the Indonesian Robot Competition 2003 on Saturday.

The institute, their third win in three years, will represent Indonesia in the Asia Pacific Robot Competition to be held in Bangkok on Aug. 24.

A new team from Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, came second with their creation called EA-2.

The competition featured 60 robots designed by 32 teams from 25 universities from across the country.

Each team was required to design manual and or automatic robots that could shoot or place a small ball into one of 27 rings circling above in an area six meters in diameter.

The rings were located in the center, inner or outer zones, with the center worth five points, the inner zone two points and the outer zone one point.

In each game, two teams competed, with the team scoring the most points declared the winner.

Last year, the ITS team, whose robot was named "Ellite", failed in the international competition in Tokyo, where a robot from Vietnam called "Telematic" won.

In 2001, the ITS team won the international competition held by NHK TV station in Koriyama, Japan. The winning robot was named "B-Cak".

The contest has been held four times, the first three at ITS. This year was the first time the competition was held in Jakarta.