Key takeaways
- Robotics and automation are becoming central to India's IT landscape as it moves towards industry 5.0.
- There is a growing interest in robotics among young students, with many starting training as early as six years old.
- The increase in robotics competitions provides students with opportunities to showcase their skills and creativity.
- WRO India is a notable robotics competition, engaging participants aged 9 to 25 since 2006.
- Competitions feature diverse challenges, including categories for regular, advanced, and football robotics.
As the Indian IT landscape readies itself to embrace industry 5.0, robotics and automation have become the focal point for industries. As the demand for the jobs in the field has been witnessing a steady spike, the number of takers for the courses at the college-levels have increased double in recent times.
As a technology which is all set to shake the industry-floors and workspaces of tomorrow, the curiosity and inquisitiveness have trickled down to young school-going students, with students as young as a six-year-old enrolling in robotics training institutes to master the art.
For this very reason, the number of avenues for students to exhibit their robotics skill, creativity and innovations have increased with time, with these competitions giving away handsome price as a reward for their out-of-the-box thinking.
From engineering institutes to robotics events organised by the Indian STEM Foundation, we take a look at the top five robotics competitions for students.
WRO India: World Robot Olympiad India (WRO India) is one of the largest Robotics competitions in India held since 2006. It is a not-for-profit competition organized by India STEM Foundation
Who can participate: Students between the age group of 9 to 25 years
Challenges: Regular, WEDO, Open categories, WRO Football, Advanced Robotics Challenge and WRO Brick Set
When is it happening: July-August 2019 (Tentative dates)
Register here
Technician: Is a global platform where the participants in different competitions related to innovation, robotics, automation and many other fascinating challenge-based engineering competitions.
Who can participate: From school students to undergraduate students
Challenges: Junior Robo Race, Senior Robo Race, Fastest Line Follower, Robo War etc
When is it happening: 13th to 15th September 2019 in New Delhi
Register here
SP Robotics Works: Is India's first robotics premier league where 50 Robotics teams across India fight it out to clinch the Robotics Championship. The programme encourages innovation in design among young maker’s and provides them with a platform to showcase their talent.
Who can participate: For School and College students
Challenges: Robo Soccer, Self-Driving Car Challenge and Save the City Challenge
When it happened: 06, January 2019
Robots at War : Apogee is BITS Pilani’s technical competence. For this year’s robotics competition, the participants had to design a remote-controlled robot to combat with the opponents.
Who can participate: College students
Challenges: The machine had to fit in a box of dimension 750 mm x 750 mm x1000 mm at any given point during the match and should not exceed 50 kg of weight including the weight of pneumatic source/tank. The challenge is to immobilize the opponents
When is it happened: 28th-31st March 2019
Robotfest: Is an autonomous robotics programme for students and its mission is to generate excitement among young people for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
Who Can Participate: Students in 4th grade through college
Challenges: Bottle Sumo, Binary Block and VCC
When it happened: 7th April 2019
