Zhong Qi

zhongqi@stu2016.jnu.edu.cn

The RoboMaster 2019 Competition was concluded on Sunday. The TDT robotics team from Northeastern University beat Shanghai Jiao Tong University 3-1 to win the title.

An annual robotics competition established in 2015, RoboMaster is held among robotics enthusiasts from universities across the world, aiming to cultivate young engineers for the next generation. The competition combines e-sports presentation with robotics confrontation, and is full of intensity and entertainment. All robots are developed by the students independently.

The venue was created in accordance with the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games format in which two teams compete on the battlefield in troupes of six robots with varying functions, namely infantry, hero, engineer, sentry and drone, and vie for victories through depleting the health points of each other’s base. RobotPilots from Shenzhen University has participated in RoboMaster every year since 2015.

To prepare for this competition, members of RobotPilots have devoted the whole year to researching and developing their robots.

“We keep updating our robots, from design to operation, to improve their performance in the competition,” said Lin Jinquan, a team member.

The students mapped out an innovative design of the engineer robots, which facilitated their stair-climbing function and thereby improved their efficiency in obtaining supplies on the battlefield.

The path is never a straight line or easy. Xie Shixuan, a member responsible for debugging, told Shenzhen Daily that every formula counts to make the robot function well. “Sometimes the output failed to meet our expectation, so we had to make modifications on the programs again and again. Nothing can be completed overnight,” he said.

“The competition and the researching process provide opportunities for us to integrate theory with practice.

Knowledge gained from classes is abstract, but you can grasp the theory by applying it to the fabrication of mechanical devices and design,” said Wang Xusheng, one of the team members.

Due to their efforts, their robots performed well on the battlefield. They moved at a fast speed and shot precisely on target with low net delay, which enabled them to defeat the opponent robots quickly. RobotPilots won 2-0 against the South China Agricultural University team and ranked first in their group.

The team finished among the top 16 of the competition. They also won the second runner-up in the southern China area preliminaries of the competition.

RoboMaster 2019 also witnessed the 18th edition of National College Students Robotics Competition.

The competition was co-hosted by the Shenzhen Nanshan District Government and DJI.