2nd Place in international robotic fish water polo competition

A PhD student team, representing the University of Groningen, won second place in the IFUR (International Federation of Underwater Robots) robotic fish water-polo competition in Chengdu, China, 20-22 May. The team members, Chen Wang and Ewoud Vos are both PhD students in the Discrete Technology and Production Automation (DTPA) group of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Both their research projects are closely related to robotic fish.

The IFUR competition is an annual international tournament for university students; this year there were 25 universities competing with 128 teams in 14 disciplines. The RUG team participated in two disciplines: 2vs2 water polo and ‘circle dribbling‘. In 2vs2 water polo two teams of two robotic fish try to score goals using a floating ball in the pool. In ‘circle dribbling‘ the goal is to make one fish push a ball around an obstacle in the middle of the pool. The winner is the team who completes this task the fastest. In the ‘circle dribbling‘ competition the RUG-team performed very well, winning the second place.