Team Atlas from Bangladesh reached the finals and ranked 4th at the World Robotics Championship 2022, one of the largest robotics competitions in the world, with more than 300 teams participating worldwide.

The World Robotics Championship is an annual global robotics competition organised by Technoxian with the help of All India Council For Robotics & Automation (AICRA) and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology of the Government of India. It aims to stimulate and increase young people’s interest in science and technology by involving them in engaging project-based learning sessions with professionals, providing a cross-border networking platform for knowledge and experience sharing, and providing opportunities to compete to recognize their achievements.

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After a two-year gap because of the pandemic, the competition was held in New Delhi, India, from August 21-24, 2022. This year, more than 18 countries and 300 teams participated from across the globe. The event consisted of nine tracks, one of which was the ‘WRC Fastest Line Follower’ challenge. Team Atlas ranked 4th in the world in that track.

The ‘WRC Fastest Line Follower’ challenge includes constructing an autonomous robot within the prescribed dimensions to obtain the top speed necessary and outpace other robots on the provided track in the shortest amount of time. Any element of the robot that crosses the finishing line during a full lap of the course counts as having crossed it, hence the robot must begin behind the starting point.

This year’s team consisted of Bangladeshi university, college and school students Sunny Jubayer, Mir Tanzid Ahmed, Mir Sazid Hassan, Mahtab Newaz, Sifat Tonmoy, Kazi Md. Muhaimin-Ul-Islam Mahi, S.M. Towfiqunnobi, Waliul Islam Nohan, Md. Fahim Shahriar, Md. Tamzid Mahmud Talib, Reza Abdullah, Md. Adham Wahid and Mir Sadia Afrin.

It is worth noting that this is the second time Team Atlas has participated in the championship. In 2019, when they first attended, they ranked 13th internationally.

Mir Tanzid Ahmed, Administrator of Team Atlas, said, “We worked hard even within the challenges of the pandemic, we spent countless hours in the lab working on research and development of our robots.” He added, “Our hard work was inspired by our motivation to represent Bangladesh better than last time and to at least make it to the top five in our next attempt.”

Since 2016, the robotics-based squad Team Atlas has been engaged in various endeavours. The team has created a variety of mechanical projects, ranging from Mars rovers to submerged machines, including Farmover (a farming robot), BrainBot (an artificial intelligence-based robot for research work), Atlas – UV1 (an autonomous underwater robot for research underwater), Alpha 21 (a fire rescue robot for use in the fire area) and Fire Defender Robot.

Team Atlas is currently a team of over 50 individuals working on different projects. They have previously reached the finals of other prestigious global competitions such as the Singapore Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge 2019, along with holding many national-level championship titles in their repository.

“We will continue to work hard, develop and participate in other major global competitions so that we can bring more glory to Bangladesh,” says Sunny Jubayer, Team Leader of Team Atlas. “We are preparing our best to win the World Robotics Championship next year among other titles,” he adds.