NTU iCeiRA

2012-12-21

The IRHOCS 2012 is organized by NTU iCeiRA, along with International Automation Research Center and Taiwan Yushan Robotics Association. This year’s contest drew the participation of teams from several colleges all over Mainland China, Singapore, and Indonesia. The difficulty of the contest rises comparing to the previous years’. The robot needs to work with the human player as a team. The mobile platform should be able to pass the ball to the contestant who would shoot and score. In the next stage of the competition, the robot is asked to pick a ball before sliding into the fixed spot for a free throw. Since total automation is mandatory throughout the contest, each team must import the source code for precise actions before the contest begins.

The Finals for the 4th IRHOCS International Robot Hands-on Competition was held on December 16. NTU iCeiRA team wins the first prize with their Renbot I. In addition, the Renbot I’s predecessor, the Renbot Zero, also claims the Best Choice Award.（Reported by楊萬雲）

Yeh, Geng Cheng; member of the team and currently a sophomore graduate student in Electrical Engineering, points out the innovation on the design of the robot’s mechanism. For the past three years, NTU’s team had been using spring coils on the catapult structure for shooting. This year is slightly different. The team has come up with a “flywheel” shooting mechanism to boost the strength and accuracy while the catapult arm retrieves two balls in a single run. Such innovative design wins the team another gold medal for the contest.

Chang, Peng Xi, who just joined the team last year, explains the reason of adopting the flywheels. Spring coils cannot throw the ball for an appropriate range regardless of the motor performance. Thus by employing the flywheels, the team effectively transfers the motor power to the wheels, solving the problem of elastic fatigue.

For this year’s competition, the RenBot Zero receives the Best Choice Award. And its counterpart, RenBot I claims the prize for best Creativity Award. In addition, National Changhua University of Education claims the Best Teamwork Award; and last but not least, Shanghai University’s team receives the bronze medal.