RoboMaster

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RoboMaster (Chinese: 机甲大师; pinyin: Jījiǎ Dàshī) is an annual intercollegiate robot competition held in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. First started in 2015, it is the brainchild of DJI's founder and CEO Frank Wang,^[1] and jointly sponsored by the Communist Youth League Central Committee, the All-China Students' Federation (ACSF) and the Shenzhen City Government.^[2] It is the first shooting sport-style robotics competition in China.

RoboMaster is one of the four major robotics competitions under the China University Robot Competition (

On September 29, 2017, the competition was officially renamed to RoboMaster, upgraded to 7 robots per team, and developed into a competition that demands the comprehensive skills involving all science and engineering disciplines. In addition, RoboMaster also added the Technical Challenge series, and co-hosted with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) the first IRCA AI Challenge in Singapore.

In 2018, the 4th RoboMaster Robotics Competition added extra technical requirements for features such as the loading and launching mechanism requirements for Sentry and Aerial robots, and focused heavily on training practical engineering personnels, attracting nearly 200 global teams. In the same year, DJI held the 2nd ICRA AI Challenge in Australia, focusing on robotics academic research.^[2]

In 2019, the RoboMaster competition sports a total prize pool of 3,750,000

The 2020 competition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, while competitions were also impacted by the pandemic, some did occur across China, in addition to the first North American RoboMaster University League competition held at the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas.^[5] The North American competition included 1v1 and 3v3 events. A union team of RoboX from Pennsylvania State University and Telpochcalli of Mexico City was named champions of the 2021 1v1 North American competition, and ARUW from the University of Washington was champion of the 2021 3v3 North American competition.^[6][7]

Competitions

RoboMaster Robotics Competition

The RoboMaster Robotics Competition (

Accidental collision of the sensor plate with other objects will result in a slight HP deduction, but ramming is considered an illegal attack. Deliberate entanglement, restraining or obstruction of an opponent robot's movements and reloading procedures is also considered foul play, and perpetrator will be penalized. Depends on the severity of the offense, the penalty can vary from direct verbal warning by referees in the control room, the team's control interface being blacked out for 3 seconds, HP deduction, dismissal of the perpetrator, or even forfeiting the game.

The RoboMaster robots come in the following tactical types:

• Hero Robot (英雄机器人) — Heavy unit, only 1 per team (designated #1), launches 42 mm projectiles (originally golf balls, later plastic) that cause 100 HPs of damage to opponents with each hit, but relies on the Engineer to acquire and supply ammunition.
• Engineer Robot (工程机器人) — Optional support unit, only 1 per team (designated #2), has no offensive weaponry but has a large health pool and can regenerate its own HPs over time (therefore often serve as a
  meat shield or a blocker
  ), can harvest 42 mm ammunitions from the resource island and deliver them to the Hero, and retrieves destroyed teammates for revival.
• Standard Robot (步兵机器人) — Light unit also known as Infantry, 2-3 per team (designated #3 to #5), launches 17 mm projectiles (originally
  rubber balls
  , later plastic) that causes 10 HPs of damage with each hit, and can complete on-field tasks that activate power-ups for the team.
• Aerial Robot (空中机器人) —
  Multicopter unit, only 1 per team (designated #6), can provide teammates with bird's-eye view information of the entire battlefield or shoot at enemies from the air, carries 500 rounds of 17 mm projectiles but needs to be fully charged on the Base helipad
  before flying in attack mode.
• Sentry Robot (哨兵机器人) — Fully
  automated Base defense sentry gun
  , only 1 per team (designated #7), moves along an elevated rail to shoot and repel invading enemies with 17 mm projectiles.

When a team manages to destroy the enemy base, they capture the flag and achieves a sudden death victory. If neither team manages to destroy the enemy Base at the end of the round, the team with the highest remaining Base HP wins. If both Base HPs are the same, then the team that inflicted on the opponents higher overall HP damages wins. If the Base HPs and inflicted damages are the same, then the team with the higher overall remaining HPs wins. If everything is the same, then the match is considered a draw. In the elimination stage, where there must be a clear winner for match, an overtime tiebreaker round will be played if needed.

Tournament format

The competition takes place in two stages — the preliminary

The RoboMaster Technical Challenge (Chinese: 机甲大师单项赛, "RoboMaster single-event competition") is derived from and is held concurrently with the RoboMaster Robotics Competition, but focuses on academic research in specific fields of robotics, and aims to encourage in-depth exploration of technology, cultivate cutting-edge robotics and motivate participants to subspecialize. It tests the efficiency, quality and time consumption by the robots to complete single specified tasks required from the actual robot combat matches. Teams can choose to participate in one or more challenges such as "Hero ranged shooting", "Engineer scaling island for ammo", "Infantry speed shooting" and "Infantry confrontation".^[11]

ICRA AI Challenge

The ICRA RoboMaster AI Challenge (

The competition is held in a different country every year to further expand its influence in the field of international robotics, attracting a large number of top universities and research institutions from around the world to participate. The annual robotics challenge was previously held in Singapore (2017), Brisbane (2018), Montreal (2019).

RoboMaster Youth Tournament

Following the successful 5-year run of the RoboMaster Robotics Competition, the RoboMaster Youth Tournament (Chinese: 机甲大师青少年挑战赛, "RoboMaster youth challenge competition"), a brand-new competition targeted at underage participants was launched in early 2020. A simplified form of the main Robotics Competition, the Youth Tournament involves teams of primary/secondary school students divided into two categories: Junior (age 9–15) and Senior (age 15–19). The early concept for the 2020 season include two commercial RoboMaster S1 educational robots (designed as "Standard"), one RoboMaster EP robot (designated as "Engineer") and one Ryze Tello EDU mini-drone (designated as "Aerial"). The opposing teams will engage in 4-on-4 tactical shooting battles with their self-developed/modified robots, as well as completing multiple on-field tasks such as projectile reloading by the Engineer, automated target recognition, line-tracking and power rune activation by the Standards, and breaching base armors by the Aerial. If the bases of both teams are still surviving after the end of the match, the team with the highest remaining base HP will be the winner.

The Youth Tournament focuses on building the theoretical engineering knowledge and AI application skills among STEM-talented youths, and helping them progress from grasping robotic basics and simple programming to mastering AI and robot control theory. Its competitive format is a test of the participants’ adaptability, troubleshooting and problem-solving skills, as well as the participants’ teamwork and sense of responsibility.^[13]

Promotional product

RoboMaster S1

The DJI RoboMaster S1 is an "intelligent educational robot"^[14] unveiled by DJI on June 11, 2019, as the first product from the RoboMaster series of consumer ground drone,^[15] aimed at introducing robotics to young children. Heavily promoted during the 2019 RoboMaster Robotics Competition, it has become an unofficial mascot of the competition.

The S1 (meaning "Step 1") is a

The RoboMaster S1 has a top sped of 3.5m/s (12.6km/h) forward, 2.5 m/s (7.2km/h) backwards and 2.8 m/s (10km/h) sideways. The turret rotation speed maxes out at 600°/s and the robot weighs 3.3kgs.

Out of the box, the user has to assemble the S1 from loose parts (guided by a detailed instruction manual) and program its

The DJI RoboMaster EP is the second educational robot from the RoboMaster line, officially released on March 9, 2020, although it was first anonymously teased in a RoboMaster S1 commercial on YouTube dated on November 25, 2019.^[17]

The EP shares similar

The anime's theme song is "super nova", performed by Ken'ichirō Ōhashi, better known by the stage name KENN.

Documentary

The RoboMaster Documentary (Chinese: 《机甲大师纪录片》) is an annual documentary series, with each episode focusing on a prominent university team, and interviewing the crews about these young engineers' aspiration, introspection and personal struggle leading up to the competition that year. The first season consists of 26 episodes and debuted on April 13, 2018, exclusively on Tencent Video, with 2 new episodes released weekly. The second season consists of 23 episodes and debuted on April 17, 2019.

See also

• Robocon
• RoboGames
• Robot Fighting League
• Robot Wars
• BattleBots

References