News in Press-centre

The student team of the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) presented the smallest device at the II World Underwater Robot Competition in Harbin (China). Despite their small size, the students were able to overtake rivals from 96 teams from 27 foreign universities and become leaders in the category of autonomous controlled vehicles.

Four FEFU students represented the university at the competition: Stepan Egunov and Platon Pryazhnikov from the Polytechnic Institute, Kirill Kuligin and Artemy Mametyev from the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Technologies. The team was mentored by employees of the Institute of Marine Technology Problems of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Pavin, Konstantin Shilin, Grigory Eliseenko and the head of the FEFU Center for Project Activities Pavel Efimov.

The competition tasks were related to navigation under water: the robot had to independently go to the desired area, rotate, drop the load, find a lighthouse under water, and more. 20 minutes and several attempts were given to overcome the obstacle course.

“We designed the robot from scratch in a year - this is always a difficult and complex task. This time we even completely rewrote the software in Python. Thanks to serious preparation, we showed a fairly high level and outperformed the strongest rivals. So, the Harbin team won the competition for two years in a row, and yet we still have a lot to learn from them,” says Pavel Efimov.

According to the head of the FEFU Center for Project Activities, international competitions are an excellent opportunity for participants to demonstrate their skills and exchange experience with colleagues from other countries, solving the same problems, but having a different view on it.

It is also a good opportunity for students to show themselves to mentors - experts in the field - and to establish themselves as talented specialists from the first year. Winning international competitions is a serious advantage for students who plan to continue their activities in both the scientific and professional fields.

It should be noted that in August, robotics students went to the first international competition in underwater robotics "Underwater Biathlon" in the capital of Kazakhstan. In the senior group (16-23 years old) in the category of remotely controlled vehicles, the FEFU team took fifth place.

Recall that FEFU unites talented and motivated students in the Center for Project Activities who are interested in the implementation of innovative and commercially promising ideas. The work is carried out in several areas, among them: The Internet of Things, Big Data, robotics, bioengineering, space systems, neurotechnologies. Projects are developed jointly with large enterprises that provide experts to advise student teams and often act as customers themselves.