Tournament for Two Capitals: High School Children Presented their Robots

About the rules

The participants were divided into two groups – the juniors, aged 10-14 who participated in the “King of the Hill” and the “Bridges” tasks and the seniors, 14-18, who took part in the “Racing” and the “Swing Sets”.

According to Alexander Negols, organizer and representative of ITMO, each task has its unique features unusual for robotics competitions.

“We decided to make a famous sumo fighting more effective: we’ve lifted up the stage and increased the amount of robots. According to the rules, they have to climb and then push the opponents from the cliff. This makes the competition more complicated and more interesting,” says Mr. Negols.

Tournament for Two Capitals, semifinals 

The Bridges needs two robots – an engineering robot builds bridges above rivers while a “tester” crosses them one by one so as to check that they were built properly.  The Swing Sets also needs two robots – they travel around a multilevel platform and pick up cylinders. Then they put them on a scale – those whose pan is heavier take 1^st place.  The Racing can be comparable with Formula 1. According to Alexander Negols, the robots move around the circle and use special pit stop zones to change a wheel or a battery.

Among the participants there were students of high schools, ITMO’s school teams, as well as members of robotics educational centers.

The Racing 

The Results of the qualifying round

The jury chose five teams that showed the best results in each task. All the winners will take part in the finals, which will take place in Moscow on May 13-14.

The Racing

Winner: the Paradox (participants: Ekaterina Lastukhina and Renat Shekhmametyev, coach: Dmitry Lastukhin, the School №8, Kirishi).

Finalists: the Laim (participant: Oleg Kelner, student of the Lyceum №239, coach: Evgeny Zavarin, ITMO University); the Dvukh Ryadka (participants: Alexander Polyakov, Alexey Orekhov, coach Mikhail Kvartin, the Youth Center of Vyborgsky District, St. Petersburg); the High Technologies (participant: Alexander Khazin, coach: Alexander Lototsky, the School №37, Vyborg) and Electropribor (participant: Daniil Migunov, student of school №30, and Daniil Pavlov, student of the Lyceum № 239, coach: Igor Lositsky, ITMO University).

Participants 

The Swing Sets

Winner: the Armadillo (participants: Mikhail Volkov, the School №495, and Andrey Lakomkin, the School №139, coach: Evgeny Zavarin, ITMO University).

Finalists: the SpravaNalevo (participant: Daniil Nechaev, the School №30, coach: Igor Lositsky, ITMO University); the Nandrolon (participants: Daniil Gorbulya and Sergai Papikyan, coach: Evgeny Sementinov, the School №495); the G30 (participants: Dmitry Nefedov, Anton Likhtarev, coach: Igor Abramov, the Lyceum №30); the Mukhomorchiki (participants: Dmitry Logachev, Yan Rabtsevich, coach: Sardana Samartseva, the Second Saint Petersburg Gymnasium); the Astatium (participants: Mikhail Korovin, Ivan Sarzhevsky, the School №376).

Participants 

The Bridges

Winner: the Suppers of Izhora (participants: Valery Hliystin and Snezhana Astaltsova, coach: Andrey Loginov, the Youth Center of Kolpinsky District, St. Petersburg).

Finalists: the Antosha and Antosha (participant: Antonn Kuznetsov, the Youth Center of Kolpinsky District, St. Petersburg); the Angry Bird (participants: Mikhail Bogodukhov and Andrey Kraevsky, coach: Natalya Titova, the Youth Creative Forum Kitezh Plus); the Dialock (participants: Alexander Grigoriev and Dmitry Samokhvalov, coach: Oksana Cherkashina, the Information Technologies Center at Slantsy) and  the Studyland.FY (participants: Alexander Nazarov and Michele Arzamastseva, coach: Andrey Chetverkin, the Studyland Training Center).

The King of the Hill

Winner: the SIGMA (participants: Maksim Shushkevich and Daniil Stepanov, coach: Alexey Chistyakov, the Educational Establishment Computer Center).

Finalists: the Robotic Sailors (participants: Arseniy Shalashov and Sergei Medvedev, coach: Alexey Romanchuk); the Revolution (participants: Daniil Ryazanov and Vsevolod Gorodetsky, coach: Alexey Lakhmenev); the Vikings (participant: Alexander Ilyin, coach: Alexey Lakhmenev) and Hulk (participant: Pavel Dobryagin, coach: Svetlana Shvetsova).

“I am interested in robotics for five months. I’m going to be an inventor in future. I take part in the King of the Hill task. During the contest we had to modify the robot’s armor and this made  it much more stronger,” says Arkady Shamshin, 10.

Ekaterina Lastukhina, participant 

“I started visiting robotic classes less than 12 months ago. I like this field and especially dealing with computers. My favorite discipline is computer science. I plan to devote myself to this field,” notes Ekaterina Lastukhina, one of the winners of the Racing task.

Awards and Prizes

During the finals the participants of the contests will take part in four tasks mentioned above and the so-called secret task – they will learn its rules right before the competition. This task will test whether the young engineers can modify their robots in accordance with new unexpected requirements having strict deadlines.

The Swing Sets

The winners will be awarded with the prize cup, iPads, gyroscooters and VR-glasses. The high school students will be also given extra 10 points for the results of their Unified State Exam.

About the contest

The Tournament for Two Capitals is organized by the Educational Committee of St. Petersburg, ITMO University and the Moscow Department of Education.

Unlike other robotics competitions, this contest includes both individual and group tasks. According to the rules, each team has to include one of two participants, a coach and an assistant.