Tag Archives: hardware

NIT & MIT beat VIT and IIT in Robocon India

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Sorry, couldn’t resist that headline.

Robocon, India was conducted in MIT, Pune this weekend and Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad won the event with a team consisting of a “combination of students from mechanical, computers, electrical and other engineering streams”. MIT, Pune were the runners up. IIT Delhi and Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune were the semi-finalists. It is pretty impressive that Pune had two teams in the top 4, considering that 38 teams from all over the country, including 5 IITs (K,B,M,D,G) had participated. The two finalists (NIT & MIT) will represent India in the International Robocon which is also being hosted by MIT, Pune this year from 29th August to 2nd September.

Since we are the hosts, the theme is also ours. The robots have to participate in a Dahi-Handi competition. Specifically:

Two (2) opposing teams a Red team and a Blue team will operate Manual machines and Autonomous machines and attempt to get at the pots of butter placed at a height and remove the large cube of Butter (Makhkhan) from the bowls.

A few of the machines would also attempt to “Steal” the Earthen Pots (Matkas) containing balls of Cheese (Paneer) being carried by the Young Girls (Gopis).

Points are earned when the Butter is removed from the Bowls placed at a height.

Points could also be earned when a Pot and/or Cheese is transferred to a Basket.

The team which picks up all the three butter cubes directly from the bowls and holds them in the air will be declared “GOVINDA” (the winner) and the game will be over.

If no team becomes “GOVINDA”, the team which accumulates more number of points within the specified time of three (3) minutes will be declared as the winner.

Samples of the Paneer, Makhkhan, and the Matkas have been sent to the participants in various countries. As far as I know, samples of Gopis have not been sent.

India has never won the International Robocon (actually International really means Asia and Oceania, and typically gets about 20 entries (which are in turn selected using local competitions in each country similar to Robocon India)). China won last year, and Vietnam has won it thrice in the 6 years that the competition has existed. Looks like winning will be tough this year too. For example, we selected our entries out of 38 teams, whereas Thailand selects out of 200 teams and Vietnam selects out of 300.

I first found the news here, and in ToI. Then did a bunch of digging on my own.

Fairchild Pune to design next generation MOSFETs and IGBTs

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Fairchild Semiconductors recently opened a design center in Pune. According to their press release, this center:

will be responsible for designing and developing the company’s new generation of power MOSFETs and IGBT technology to support popular applications such as solar inverters, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), automotive, lighting and ballast applications.

The Indian R&D design center is staffed by expert electrical engineers with extensive design experience and a thorough understanding of the requirements for power designs, in particular low-voltage power. The Pune location was chosen due to its close proximity to several excellent colleges and educational institutions that focus on engineering, and it is home to diverse research institutions that supplement higher education. In addition, Pune has a very strong presence in the automobile sector.