On October 25, the Intelligent System on Chip (SoC) Robot War 2012 was held at KINTEX for four days. This competition is the most prestigious robot competition in Korea and is the first competition in the world to use SoC technology. In 2002, it was started by KAIST’s Department of Electrical Engineering Professor Hoi-Hun Yoo, and has since then been held annually.

The essence of this Robot War revolves around the technology of SoC. SoC refers to the system where the processor, memory, surrounding electronics, and logics are all amalgamated into a single semiconductor chip. These chips are inserted into robots that have cameras and various sensors to allow the robot to identify their surroundings. By utilizing the chips and sensors, the robots can make decisions and carry out actions on their own without any external influences. Therefore, the goals of this competition are to successfully develop these humanoid robots and to complete the given tasks effectively.

The competition is split into two subcategories: the HURO-competition and the SoC Taekwon Robot. The HURO-competition requires robots to complete a course of various tasks. These include crawling, penetrating barricades, crossing bridges, and aiming golf balls at targets. The team that completes all the missions in the shortest amount of time is deemed the winner. The SoC Taekwon Robot session consists of robots sparring against each other in a tournament format. For the sparring, the robots must use taekwondo to perform punches or kicks in order to knock down the enemy. The winning team from each of these categories receives the presidential and prime minister’s award.
This year, in addition to the regular matches, there were various entertainments available for public enjoyment. The KAIST SIDA research center and Chungnam University’s robot club GROW performed some robot taekwondo demonstrations and other robots danced to popular songs.

In April, the applications for this competition were received and tests were carried out to validate participation rights. After the preliminaries, 22 university teams were selected as finalists for the competition.
Professor Yoo stated, “Regarding robot technology, the essence of intelligence is brain chip development.” He added that, “For the fore-looming robot generation, it is necessary to concentrate on developing robot chips with our own technology.”