Pune students secure third place at IIT Bombay’s Techfest 2020

The students had to design a pick-and-place robot that had to navigate through an obstacle course while collecting and depositing designated objects along the way

Students from city-based Lydnow Robotics have won third prize at the Cozmo Clench robotic competition Techfest 2020 organised at IIT Bombay recently. The science and technology festival was held from January 3 to 5 this year.

From left- incharge Yatin Mohan felicitating Tej Dhawan, Pratham Zende, Tanvi Acharya, and Ojas Chandegave.(HT/PHOTO)

The winning team of students, including Pratham Zende (Class 9, SM Choksey High School), Tanvi Acharya (Class 8, St Mary’s High School), Tej Dhawan (Class 9, Boston World School) and Ojas Chandegave (Class 8, Victorious Kids Educare School), completed all the tasks assigned to them in less than 72 seconds as against the given stipulated time of 80 seconds.

The students had to design a pick-and-place robot that had to navigate through an obstacle course while collecting and depositing designated objects along the way.

Lydnow Robotics’ student drives his robot through the Cozmo Ciech obstacle course at IIT-Bombay. (HT/PHOTO)

“The robots were controlled by one of the team members with handmade wireless control. The teams were judged on the tasks they completed as well as the time they took to do so,” said the students.

The winning team was among the top five selected for the final round. Each of the teams had to complete the tasks under 80 seconds to qualify for the finals. They had to outdo 180 teams along the way.

Each year, Lydnow Robotics, a training and consulting company in robotics and automation, selects a team of its students who participate and compete at various national-level robot design challenges at the IIT Techfest. The students solve design challenges put forward by IIT Bombay, three months before the event. The students build, pick and place robots, hovercrafts and autonomous maze solving robots. The challenges are usually designed for engineering students and are fairly complex design tasks in technology.