ROBOTIX 2010 : Of Standards, Difficulties and Numbers

Well, we have another year of ROBOTIX, Tenth year that is. We started out to push ROBOTIX as a platform to promote free thinking among the engineering fraternity and let technology break free from the chains of department labs and examination halls.

To be honest, all my expectations were fulfilled in this particular ROBOTIX. There have been 9 ROBOTIXes before this one. What change have we achieved? As has been explained by several of the cordis, alums and very recently by Golu, we have achieved a lot.

It started off in 2001, with a meagre participation, all in-house. The focus at that time was improvement of quality and quantity. Things were quite hazy and people were confused, but determined to make it grow. Growth meant two things, quality and quantity. Things went on till we had some 30 odd teams in 2004. Then in 2005, TRS entered a new phase. Enter Aneesh and Golu. TRS was officially formed and recognized under gymkhana. The concept of a "junta event" was introduced. For the unknown, "junta event" was one particular event which was relatively easy, and involved maximum people's participation, and sometimes entertained the on-lookers.

Year 2005 : That increased the participation to 220 teams in 2005, totally unexpected. That was the time when exponential growth in participation began, and it did begin with a roar. That meant more and more people were making bots. Taking the logic further, that meant that more people have started thinking freely. That was a positive sign and we started pushing for more participants.

Year 2006. Enter Anant Choube. While publicizing for ROBOTIX, we heard complaints from the colleges we visited that unfair measures were being used, with usual complaints like partiality etc. So, Anant made up his mind that ROBOTIX 2006 will be participant-friendly, and the participant will be rewarded for his effort. That was aimed at cultivating a good image of ROBOTIX among the general junta. We had something around 280 teams in 2006.

Year 2007 : Last year's participant-friendliness resulted in a surge in the numerical participation, with 550 teams coming to KGP for ROBOTIX 2007. Along with all this, the standard kept on improving, though not as fast as the numbers grew. This year saw some of the legendary events such as Grid Navigator, which became standards for the subsequent years.
Enter Aamir, the man who had pushed technicalities to a new zone.

Year 2008 : This is the year i saw ROBOTIX for the first time, an awesome experience. The numerical participation escalated to more than a 1000 teams! Honestly, the team seemed to be overburdened. The participation in the autonomous event Robo Relay was so large that it was termed as the first autonomous-junta-event! It was for the first time an event had a participation number as big as 350, as seen in Terra Ranger. The numbers were quite impressive, but there were several realizations which we had to wake up to. That was the year when we realized that there was no point in increasing the participation. We had to limit the participation. By then, we realized that we had the power to attract 1000 teams to KGP, whenever we wished. So, the focus was bound to change. The focus is now on technical advancements. Giving the people more challenging and real life problem statements in the field of robotics was our main task at that moment. Something similar was said when Aneesh visited the campus. My views on that can be viewed here. Something which Sassy pointed out, and felt bad about, was that it had become a certificate mela. People coming with simple differential drives and asking for certificates.

Year 2009 : We had come to a new phase. The focus now was on the quality of the teams. The quality of the robots they made. Simple differential drives were to be killed. A certificate policy was to be decided so that only the deserving teams get certificates. This changed a lot of things. The legendary 8Mile was introduced. Estimates said that the participation would decrease drastically. 8Mile was tougher than any other event our country had ever seen, or rather thought of. Honestly, it was unimaginably difficult. Next came 12 Doors Down, much tougher than last year's Robo Relay. Plus, the mechanical events were naturally tougher than those of last year. We were forecasting drastic reduction in the participation.
But, clearing away our fears, due to the simplicity of wEDGED and #mEsh, several teams arrived, with the number being at 800.


Year 2010 : Enter my batch. We felt that improvement of difficulties was imminent. Hoping that 8Mile would some day reach DARPA levels, we decided to continue with the legendary 8Mile, we elevated the difficulty and renamed it to 8MileX, to mark our 10th anniversary. We introduced the first ever underwater event, held in a swanky perspex tank, eXplore. As another first, we introduced the first ever 10-hr robot-making event, TribotX Championship. And, the previous two were probably the first ever manual non-junta events :D. Also, we introduced the first ever autonomous event requiring special mechanical skills, in other words, the first ever "mechatronic" event, Xtension. Along with all these, we had Xplode, where we experimented with metal detection with the metal embedded beneath a wooden surface.
Considering the difficulty of the events at present, it would be insufficient to call this as phenomenal! The participation numbers went down to something around 450 teams, but the standard improvement was extraordinary!

Apart from the standard, the event was totally chaos-free, felt immense happiness as a head. Commanding a fantastic team, where everyone put one's best, to make this possible, it was simply superb.

Also, something which I hadn't noticed, but pointed out by Golu, that all the events had some or the other significance with respect to the real-life problems faced by people. These turned out to be standard engineering problems. Things like automated vehicle guidance, mine detection and avoidance, instant bridge construction, underwater rescue and even material sorting; all were implied in the events.

We have started going on the path of technological improvements in ROBOTIX. I hope this is the beginning of a new phase, where old mindsets are replaced by new and radical ones, where people aren't afraid to think and aim high. Where Standards matter more than Numbers.

I personally feel we are treading in the right direction.

All I can do now is hope that the future batches will go in the right direction.

All the best to my dear sub-heads and members.

And, never forget, as Swapnil says :

eNJOY!!