Robotics enthusiasts descended on Dnipro, the robotics capital of Eastern Europe — at least for the first weekend of Fall. Thanks to BestRoboFest, an annual family festival with a robotics and tech twist, organizer Noosphere was able to bring out the enthusiasts in droves.
BestRoboFest 2019 took place on 7-8 September 2019, at the Student’s Palace of the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University in the Shevchenko park.
ROBOTICS COMPETITIONS
True to tradition, BestRoboFest 2019 beat some of the old records and featured brand new tech activities. Last year BestRoboFest drew record crowds — more than 30,000 people. This year another record was smashed — more than 350 people joined the robotics competitions. That’s almost double the entrants from 2018. Only 38 participants were local, with all other teams and single robotics enthusiasts hailing from 11 regions of Ukraine.
106 teams and 49 individual technicians came to Dnipro to take part in one of 5 competitive robotics disciplines. 3 of them took place on the first day of the competitions (Saturday, September 7):
SCRATCH
Traditional robotic competition for animated and Arduino robots. Following a preset theme, participants prebuild the projects and present them to the judges. The winners were:
1st place — Kyrill Blahodarov aka ITshka from Dnipro
2nd place — Mykyta Teplichko and Ivan Svetov from Robo Club Vuhledar from Vuhledar city
3rd place — Kyrylo Pustoviy aka Chas Robotiv from Verkhniodniprovsk city
FREE STYLE
The name of this competition speaks for itself. Participants create robotics projects with no limitations and present them to the judges. All the participants were divided into two age groups.
Judges chose the winners to be:
Free Style Junior (age 0-14 ):
Winner — Oreo Team from Cherkasy city
Special award — Illia Kuznetsov aka Komanda A from Kyiv
Free Style Senior (age 14+):
Winner — Oleksander Kostyria from Mezhove city
Special Award — Oleksiy Lidahovsky from Kyiv
ROBO RACE
Autonomous robots race along the backline of the banner field. The fastest robot in each of the two size groups takes the victory.
The winners are:
– Robo Race L (larger robots):
1st — VladislavSopin from Zaporizhzhia
2nd — Stream Land team from Zaporizhzhia
3rd — Incredible Geniuses team from Zaporizhzhia
– Robo Race S (smaller robots):
1st — Robo Club Vuhledar from Vuhledar city
2nd — Lada Popadiuk from Moryntsi city
3rd — Robo Club Vuhledar Junior from Vuhledar city4th — Atom from Cherkasy city.
In another record-breaker, this was the first time in the history of BestRoboFest to award 4th place, as each of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place timing was less than half of a second.
Day 2 of the festival (Sunday, September 8th) presented two more competitive disciplines:
ROBO SUMO
One of the more traditional robotics disciplines, where robots are pushing each other outside of the tatami. The robot closest to the centre of the tatami at the end of the round is the winner.
The following participants got their hands raised as winners:
Remote-controlled Robo Sumo:
1st — OnlyWinner team from Cherkasy city
2nd — Syla Musli team
3rd — Vladislav Sopin from Zaporizhzhia
Autonomous Robo Sumo:
1st — Vladislav Sopin from Zaporizhzhia
2nd — Pavlo Malynnikov aka Dragon Fly from Vinnytsia
3rd — Innokentiy Malynnikov from Vinnytsia
BestRoboFest 2018 had special requests from participants to hold a Custom Robo Sumo – the same Robo Sumo rules competition, but with custom robots. As an experiment in 2018, this Custom Robo Sumo was so well received it is now a regular competition. Following participants placed for prizes:
Custom Remote-controlled Robo Sumo:
1st — Vasyl Talan aka Dom Robotov from Kherson city
2nd — ZhV 04 team from Zhovti Vody city
3 — ZhV 03 team from Zhovti Vody city
Custom Autonomous Robo Sumo
1st— Hoopty team from Dnipro city
2nd — Brobots team from Brovary city
3rd — Brobots 2 team from Brovary city
ROBO MAZE
A brand new competitive discipline for BestRoboFest 2019.
Participants were tasked to create an autonomous robot capable of getting out of a maze as fast as possible.
Judges from Noosphere Engineering School and Robo City determined the winners:
1st — RoboRytm from Kyiv city
2nd — Hurtom from Dnipro
3rd — Nikobots1 from Nikopol
All winners received trophies and valuable prizes from Noosphere and other sponsors of BestRoboFest.
BestRoboFest 2019 had one more new treat in store — a grand prize. This year BestRoboFest judges decided to spread US$2000 worth Grand Prix among 3 robotics schools from various regions of Ukraine in order for them to develop robotics in their areas. BroBots from Brovary, SmartBrain from Pogreby (Cherkasy region) and ZhV from Zhovti Vody divided the Grand Prix among each other.
EXPO ZONE
22 partners took over the street of Students Palace to entertain visitors of BestRoboFest these days. Professionals held numerous robotics, drone controlling, constructing and rocketry workshops both days.
People especially enjoyed the biggest exhibition of the BestRoboFest 2019 — Kids On the Moon exhibition from Portugal. It’s an interactive exhibition about space exploration and the moon landing. After performing at both days of BestRoboFest, Kids on the Moon exhibition was transported to Gagarin Park and continued for a few more weeks.
Visitors could also look into the telescope and learn how to operate the satellite from the Dnipro Planetarium stand. Those who seek for a calmer way to spend time at Best RoboFest could enjoy a book reading space by Knygarnia E.
Beyblade and Infinity Nado tournaments were especially crazy, with 72 participants.
Andrey Mzokov and Artem Rodionov won the Beyblade tournament, and Makar Orel and Iva Horobets were the best Infinity Nado.
Visitors also spent time at the Art Zone with sweets drawing, thermal mosaics and drawing on the walls.
BestRoboFashion
Another new and very special event at BestRoboFest 2019 was the robotics suits fashion contest: BestRoboFashion. Kids (and their parents) created robotic and futuristic suits and presented them on the stage. The winners were also divided by age groups:
Age 3-5:
1st place — Alisa Shkurko and her CoffeeBot-01 suit. Alia also received a special award from judge and famous Ukranian photographer Kateryna Kudina.
2nd place — Andrew Kharenko with his cosplay of C-3PO from Star Wars.
3rd place — Miron Rodionov with his sweet tooth robot suit.
Age 7-10:
1st place — Artem Miroshnichenko and his Wall-E suit
2nd place — Illia Kirpa
3rd place — Leonid Fedotov
Age 11-14
1st place — Anastasia Borovenska and her Sharp Claw suit
2nd place — Anna Nech and her Glamour Star costume
3rd place — Danylo Sobko
Judges couldn’t help but gave Special Award to the team of Yaroslav Salnikov, Konstantin Kolchin and Illia Diachok. They created a three-person suit of a Devastator robot from the Minecraft Universe.
MonsterCarsUA
Another traditional activity for BestRoboFest is a monster vehicle show contest MonsterCarsUA. It was the 3rd edition of the contest. This year’s special requirement for vehicles was to be attractive for children. In fact, children who won in robotic competitions were judges.
The traditional prize fund of $9000 was divided by:
$5000 — Mad Max — the participant of all 3 years of MonsterCarsUA finally got it’s gold;
$3000 — Black Fire
$1000 — Orphan
Follow BestRoboFest on Facebook and at bestrobofest.com to be aware of all the news.
Spoiler: BestRoboFest 2020 is going to be revolutionary bigger!
