A team from the Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing has emerged victorious in an international robotics competition held in Abu Dhabi, securing a $2 million reward for their innovative project that facilitates collaboration between unmanned aerial vehicles and ships for life-saving purposes. This accolade was announced by FER, highlighting the team’s exceptional achievement in a field that attracted around 60 teams from notable universities and industry giants worldwide, including Lockheed Martin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The team, which drew its members from FER’s Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems (LARICS) and Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST), was under the leadership of Kristijan Krčmar. Their journey to success saw them first being shortlisted among the top five contenders before ultimately being declared the winners. This remarkable feat underscores the team’s prowess in robotics and intelligent control systems, setting a high bar for future competitions.
The biennial Abu Dhabi competition, sponsored by the President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, is renowned as one of the most prestigious robotics contests globally. The challenge for this edition was to create a fully autonomous unmanned ship capable of transferring cargo in coordination with drones, a task that the Zagreb team executed flawlessly, showcasing the potential of integrating advanced robotics in real-world applications.
