By IANS
Pune : The traditional Indian version of the cookie jar race is baby Krishna atop a human pyramid, reaching out to a pot of butter. It is enacted every year. This year, robots are going to do it, and they will be in a race.
The national robotic contest “Mission Govinda” to be held in Pune this weekend (March 8-9) will see 38 teams from all over the country including the IITs and regional and private engineering colleges compete in this one-of-a-kind contest at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology. Govinda is another name for Krishna.
The winner and the runner up team will participate in the International Robocon to be held in August.
Each team will have to make robots, which will help their robotic team to get low-density polystyrene (symbolising butter) from bowls, which the opponent robotic team tries to dodge. The team, which successfully gets `butter’ from all three pots hung at various places will win.
A.M. Chakradeo, chairman contest committee said: “It is not as easy as it sounds. It’s a battle of intellect and technology. It involves game plans and the top brains of the country battle it out in the arena. The robots have to get on top of each other to achieve success.”
The chief convener of the ABU Asia Pacific Robot contest 08, Sunil Karad said: “We want industry to sponsor the teams. Everywhere in the world, the response is so good because they have lots of funds.”
Maharashtra Institute of Technology, the official convener of the event, plans to raise Rs.5 million from sponsors and other internal sources. The international event will cost Rs.25 to 30 million while the domestic event will cost Rs.1.4 million.
According to Chakradeo, Indian teams face a financial crunch since they have to spend about a million rupees to create a robot. Teams from Vietnam and China are very aggressive and technologically advanced, he added.