From October 23 to 26, the KAIST System Design Innovation & Application Research Center hosted the 2014 Intelligent SoC (System-on-a-Chip) Robot War Competition at Ilsan Kintex. The main theme of the competition was “Developing the world’s best intelligent robot by integrating semiconductors with robots”.
SoCs are non-memory semiconductors that combine memory, central processing units, and sound and video output into a single chip. SoC robots integrate SoC semiconductor technology with robots to create intelligent robots that are capable of recognizing objects and making decisions autonomously.
This year marks the 13th anniversary of the competition, which is divided into the HURO-Competition and SoC Taekwon Robot events.
The HURO-Competition is an obstacle course comprised of jumping huddle, passing barricades, and crossing bridges. The robot that takes the least amount of time to complete the circuit wins and that team is given a Presidential Award. Robots that complete the course within 8 minutes are given extra points.
The SoC Taekwon Robot event is a battle between robots that are programed to do Taekwondo. Points are determined by how many successful moves, for example front kicks, side kicks and punchs, a robot deals to its opponent, and the winning team is given a Prime Minister’s Award.
530 students from 130 universities around the country participated in this year’s competition, and after a preliminary round of contests 30 teams made it to the finals.
Professor Hoi-Jun Yoo of the KAIST Department of Electrical Engineering, who is also the Head of Operation of the competition, said, “Korea has the biggest potential in the field of intelligent robots due to its world-class semiconductor technology. The experience gained by participating university students will become the foundation of a country with advanced robot technology.”
This year, the Presidential Award went to Double RFIC team from Chungbuk National University, and the Prime Minister’s Award went to Heungbot team from Hanbat National University.