The whole sport of sumo wrestling may well undergo a dramatic change in the not too distant future. Seven students from the Yorkton Regional High School (YRHS) may well be in the forefront of the change. The students in question recently competed in Sumobots, a provincial competition hosted by SIAST at Kelsey campus in Saskatoon. They competed with robots they had tweaked and programmed themselves, says YRHS teacher Andrew Pearce. Pearce and fellow teacher Kevin Chiasson worked with the students and accompanied them to the competition.
The competition hosted about 110 competitors from around the province with their battling robots. The competition itself featured a pair of small robots, 10 cm by 10 cm by 10 cm each running solely on programming. "Once you start it, you can't touch it again," Pearce explains. The goal of the competition is to have each robot try to maneuver and push its opponent out of a ring, similar to sumo wrestling, Pearce continues.
The name of the competition is "Myrobotrumble", he points out. The robots are virtually identical because of the size and weight limits. In order to win, competitors had to program the right moves into their robots, Pearce points out.
YRHS students did very well, says Pearce. Liam Pool and Ty Nelson were on the consolation side. Nelson claimed first place in the consolation pool. Rachel Machnee placed 10th in the main pool. Veronica Pinette and Gabrielle Thomson, both Grade 9 students, claimed sixth place. Bo Chiasson placed fourth. Michael Kozushka, in his first competition, won first place which earned him a $1,500 scholarship to SIAST, $150 cash and and iPod Touch. "Out of 110 competitors we took seven and five got into the top 10," Pearce sums up.
Ty Nelson says he enjoyed the competition. He's entered for the past three years culminating with this year. Nelson claimed first place in the consolation event.
Bo Chiasson, in his second year at Sumobots, finished in fourth place.
Liam Pool, a first year competitor, also liked the contest. He vows to return and do better next year now that he knows what to expect.
Rachel Machnee, a second year competitor, made it to the quarter finals. "It's just a really good experience to see all the different technology and everyone's advances," Machnee comments.
First year competitor Gabrielle Thomson says the competition opened her eyes to electronics. She's considering going into an electrical career in agrobotics.
Veronica Pinette, also a first year competitor, says she hopes to return next year and have a better idea what to expect in the competition.
Michael Kozushka beat the odds in his first year of competition. Kozushka's robot cleaned up the opposition earning him first place overall in the event. He credits his instructors, Pearce and Chiasson, for helping him to win. He says the winning strategy was to program his robot differently from most of the others. "My robot just backed up and spun around searching for the other guy and just pushed him out of the ring," Kozushka explains. He took about a week to prepare his robot for competition.
Kozusha's robot has a swivel blade on the front to keep it level with the playing surface. He installed an ultrasonic sensor which he believes is more reliable than the infra-red sensors on most of the other bots.
Kozushka admits he was definitely lucky in first competition. He beat five opponents in the first pool, four others in the second pool. In the finals he won over two other robots to claim the overall win.
He found the experience both interesting and fun. While he doesn't consider any related career at this time, Kozushka would like to continue with robotics as a hobby.
