ABU Robocon Robotics Projects (2017-2019)

A three-year journey designing and building competitive robots for ABU Robocon

Background

Between 2017 and 2019, I was part of the team of 12-16 students representing Nepal at ABU Robocon, an international robotics competition where university teams design and build robots to solve complex, time-critical tasks. Each year introduced a new problem statement, requiring the team to rethink robot architecture, mechanisms, and motion strategies from the ground up.

Over these three years, our team reached the semi-finals in 2017, won the Best Shuttlecock Award in 2018 (Vietnam), and received the ROHM Award in 2019 (Mongolia). My involvement throughout this period was primarily focused on the research, design, and development of robot mechanisms and motion systems.

My contributions

  • Translated competition rules into feasible robot motions
  • Designed and refined mechanisms based on kinematics, actuator limits, and reliability
  • Developed mechanisms for gripping, transfer, throwing, and walking
  • Selected actuators and materials for performance and manufacturability
  • Modeled mechanisms in 3D CAD and validated motion through simulation

Three-Actuator Based Walking Robot (2019)

One of the key systems developed during this period was a three-actuator based underactuated walking robot for ABU Robocon 2019 in Mongolia. The robot used only three effective actuators to generate walking motion.

The walking motion was first developed and tested in CoppeliaSim. After validating the simulated behavior, the robot was fabricated and tested experimentally, where additional tuning was performed based on observed performance.

Simulated motion and real-world experiments of the three-actuator walking robot.

Robots for ABU Robocon 2018

For ABU Robocon 2018, the competition required both automatic and manual robots capable of fast and precise object manipulation and shuttlecock throwing. I contributed to the design and testing of shuttlecock launching mechanisms which was inspired from helicopter Swashplate.

Automatic and manual robots developed for ABU Robocon 2018 (Vietnam).

Team Experience

ABU Robocon was also a strong lesson in team-based engineering. Designs evolved through repeated discussion, testing, and failure, and progress depended on coordination between mechanical, electrical, and control sub-teams.

Team Nepal during ABU Robocon 2018 and 2019.

Reflection

These fast paced and highly demanding three years at Robotics Club, and participating in Robocon shaped my approach to robotics engineering, emphasizing simple and robust designs, iterative testing, and effective teamwork.