The winning team of the National Robotic Contest 2008, known as Robocon India, that will be held on March 8 and 9 in Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) Pune, will qualify for the international round at ABU Robocon 2008 on August 31 where it will compete with the best from around the world. The venue this year for the international competition, too, is MIT, Pune.

Dr Sunil Karad, chief convenor, ABU Robocon 2008, explained, “This year the theme chosen is Dahi Handi which is an important part of the Indian mythology. Two teams will compete with each other using automatic and manual machines. In three minutes, the machines will have to try to ‘steal’ the butter cubes from pots.”

Each team consists of three members and an instructor. Professor C Amarnath, the instructor of the IITB team said, “The preparation starts well in advance, sometimes a year earlier. Students are extremely enthusiastic. Every year, there is a new batch of students.”

The theme of the competition is based on local mythological lore of the host country. For example, last year, at Vietnam, the theme was based on the Ha Long bay discovery where the robots had to build ‘islands’ in the middle of a specified game field.

According to Professor Amaranth the best competitors are China, Japan and Vietnam. No Indian team has won the ABU Robocon as yet. 32 colleges from India including five IITs will participate in the competition. Sardar Patel college of engineering, AC Patil college, Veermata Jijabai Technical Institute, Vivekanad Education Society’s Institute of Technology (VJTI), St Francis Institute of Technology, and IITB will represent Mumbai this year.