The highlight of Vellore Institute of Technology’s (VIT) three-day technological fest graVITas was the robot fight being held at the open stadium in its Vellore campus on Saturday.
The creativity and ingenuity of students from various streams of engineering, like mechanical, electronics and electrical and communication, were on display at the event, which has become a regular fixture at VIT since 2008.
VIT vice-president G.V. Selvam witnessed Saturday’s events. “Developing a robot is not child’s play. It takes at least three years of joint effort from like-minded teammates to make it work,” said Adwyck Gupta, a third-year EEE student from the institution.
The participants of the robot fight are divided into two categories based on weight – 15 kg and 60 kg – and operated remotely by the students. The damaged robot can be repaired in 20 minutes to fight again but cannot be replaced with a new one. At the graVITas, 22 teams were enrolled to clash in 19 matches to become the champion. The winning robot was decided based on three criteria — aggression, control and damage.
Events such as this enable engineering students apply what they have learned and gain some experience.
Another attraction at graVITas was the drone obstacle course. Participants must navigate their drones through a series of obstacles, like archways and poles, for a distance of around 200 m. The fastest drone to clear the course is declared the winner. A total of 32 teams participated in the event.
During the three-day festival, 140 events will be held with more than 13,000 students from various colleges and deemed universities from across the country participating.
