A total of 278 robot teams from 107 universities in Indonesia are ready to compete in the Regional-Level Indonesian Robot Contest (KRI) organized by the National Achievement Center of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Puspresnas Kemdibud Ristek). The competition will be held online from 22 September to 1 October 2021, with UGM as the host.
Regional KRIs are grouped into two parts, namely KRI Region I and KRI Region II. The KRI Region I was attended by 140 student teams from 54 universities in the western part of Indonesia. KRI Region II was joined by 138 student teams from 53 universities in Eastern Indonesia.
Coordinator of the Pokja Dikti Puspresnas, Rizal Alfian, said that KRI is an annual robotics contest aimed at facilitating student interests, ideas, and creativity in the field of robotics technology. He hopes that in the future students will not only be enthusiastic about developing robots for robot contests but also have a fighting spirit in providing solutions to problems in the community.
“KRI shows that Indonesia has a myriad of talents in the field of robotics. We hoped that the results can reach the industry in the future so that they can provide benefits and offer solutions to problems in society through robots and technology,” he said on Thursday (23/9) when opening KRI 2021 at Grha Sabha Pramana, UGM.
He did not forget to express his gratitude to all universities that have participated in KRI 2021 and facilitated students in developing an interest in the field of robotics. He also thanked UGM as the host for the 2021 KRI.
One of the KRI juries, Prof. Benyamin Kusumoputro, said that 2021 will be the second year of virtual KRI. According to him, there are two main challenges faced in online KRI: fairness and fair play. Fairness means all teams have the same technological and infrastructure capabilities, while fair play is the competing teams can play honestly.
“In terms of fairness, infrastructure must be evenly distributed among participants, and student teams who compete must be able to play fairly,” he said.
Benyamin said that conducting a fair online competition was difficult because there were inequalities in infrastructure in each region of Indonesia. For example, network delays in Java usually last 3-5 seconds, but outside Java, delays can last more than 10 seconds.
“The difference does not seem to matter, but because the competition takes place in real time, the delay difference is a problem,” he said.
Responding to the network damage due to the broken submarine cable, Benjamin said there was a change in the judging process. Assessment will be made by taking the average score from several matches.
“We changed the judging system because we were afraid that the team experiences lost connection while playing, so we took several matches and took the average,” he explained.
UGM Director of Student Affairs, Dr. R. Suharyadi, reported that KRI 2021 will be held online with participants competing at their respective universities which will be broadcast online via video conference. Meanwhile, the jury and committee are consolidated offline at UGM GSP by implementing strict health protocols.
He explained that the KRI was carried out in two stages at the regional level and the national level. Regional Level KRI will take place from 22 September to 1 October 2021, and National Level KRI from 12 to 17 October 2021.
KRI competed in six divisions, including the Indonesian Ash Robot Contest (KRAI), the Indonesian Search and Rescue Robot Contest (KRSRI), previously known as the Indonesian Fire Extinguisher Robot Contest (KRPAI), the Indonesian Football Robot Contest (KRSBI), KRSBI Humanoid, the Indonesian Dance Robot Contest (KRSTI), and the Indonesian Thematic Robot Contest (KRTMI).
The best teams at the regional level will later compete again at the KRI at the national level. Meanwhile, the first winner of 2021 KRAI will be appointed to represent Indonesia in ABU Robocon 2021 held online in China.
Source: https://www.ugm.ac.id/id/berita/21718-278-tim-robot-berkompetisi-di-kri-tingkat-wilayah-2021
