Winning e-Yantra Robotics Competition 2019–20
By: Shreya Rastogi
Tags: Iit Bombay, Eyantra, Self Balancing Robot, Teamwork, Robotics

I cannot start this story without providing a little bit of background. My relationship with eYRC began in the second year of my engineering. I had heard a lot about this competition from my seniors. It had an excellent reputation in our college. Hence when registrations began, four of us got together, formed a team, and registered for the competition. My team members were Rajat Gurnani, Surbhi Kumari and Simrat Singh Chitkara. The entire experience of participating was grueling and extremely educative. But due to certain reasons, we didn’t reach the finals the first time around. Being so close to the victory and not arriving at the finish line sparked something in all of us. So, at the beginning of our third year, we decided to participate again. This time it was about proving to ourselves that we can do it. So, with this determination, we again embarked on a six-month journey of transformation and sheer hard-work.

It started with the registration process in August. After that, there was an aptitude test consisting of basic aptitude questions. This test happened in September. On 19th October 2019, we found out that we had been shortlisted for Stage 1!!! Our theme was Biped Patrol. We had to make a two-wheeled self-balancing robot and make it perform certain tasks on an arena.

STAGE 1 (software)

Next came Stage 1, comprising of two tasks, Task 0 and Task 1. Task 0 involved software installation and Task 1 involved executing codes and simulating the outputs in GNU Octave (V-5.1.0.0) software. The outputs looked like this:

Stage 1 was the deciding stage it had the power of deciding our future in the competition. Fortunately, we cleared it. On 6th December 2019, we found out that we had been selected for Stage 2.

STAGE 2 (hardware and software)

In this stage, our first task was Task 2. As part of this task, we had to get our arena flex printed. This was basically an area that our bot had to traverse and simultaneously pick and drop boxes from their storage place to their destination. It looked like this:

Next was Task 3. This task was divided into three parts. In the first part, we had to prepare the remaining objects for the arena, i.e., Racks, Beds, Medicine Boxes (MB), First Aid Kits (FAK), Chlorine Tablets (CT) & Bridge. In the second part of the task, we had to make a remote control for controlling our two-wheeled self-balancing robot. The third part involved a questionnaire regarding the theme and related concepts. The deadline for this task was 15th January 2020.

Task 4 instructed us to make videos of our robot in different configurations. Unfortunately, by the task deadline, we were unable to balance our robot. Therefore, we didn’t submit this task. It was disheartening when the bot refused to balance itself, but we were determined not to give up. Hence, we persisted with building our bot and perfecting the code. Finally, around 15–20th February, the bot started to balance itself. Once that took place, we were beyond excited. It gave us the necessary motivation to move forward, and within a week, it was able to manage all the tasks expected of it. The final task submission was to take place between 27th — 29th February.

The final task involved arena traversal and task completion by the medbot. There were two configurations — original and bonus. If the team was successful in completing the original configuration, they could also record the bonus video. All four of us met at Simrat’s house and started with the task. From the time we downloaded the task, we only had 48 hours to submit it.

Medbot in action

Throughout the final task, we encountered multiple challenges, but we kept at it. The robot had to be controlled by the person operating the remote. A joystick was controlling the robot. Learning how to drive it through the arena and making it perform the tasks was difficult. It kept falling and crashing into racks. But we had to make a perfect final run by hook or by crook. We were at it like our lives depended on it. Finally the second day we managed to record it. After that came the bonus run, which was a bit of pain but we managed to sail through it. Those two days at his house were filled with stress and laughter combined. We were worried and yet having fun.

After the submissions, we waited for the results. We were quite optimistic about the outcome. The results came in on 11th March. We had been selected for finals at IIT, Bombay!! But our luck wasn’t with us, the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world and the finals got canceled.

Then, on the 4th of July, we finally received an e-mail stating that the finals of e-YRC 2019–20 will take place remotely. We were excited and anxious about how it would take place. It turned out that our final task submission videos and a Q/A session would decide the winners. In our theme, ours was the highest scoring run. We were far ahead of the rest of the teams. Our entire presentation went well. A day after, we were declared winners of the e-YRC 2019–20, under the Biped Patrol theme!! That’s how our two-year journey ended, with a thrilling and satisfying finish.