ITS Barunastra team successfully defended the 5th time General Champion at the International Roboboat Competition 2023 in Florida

ITS Campus, ITS News – The Barunastra Team of the Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) again boasted the name of the alma mater and the Indonesian nation in the international arena. By its determination when leaving, the team of robotic ships or roboboat mainstay ITS again managed to defend the title of 1st place for the 5th time at the prestigious International Roboboat Competition (IRC) 2023 in Sarasota, Florida, United States.

Bringing the latest ship named Nala Proteus, the Barunastra ITS team won two awards at once at this international scale event. The award is the 1st Grand Champion and 2nd Place Design Documentation International Roboboat Competition 2023. Amazingly, the award was obtained by Barunastra ITS after competing with 24 teams from various countries, including the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Technology campus in the United States.

One of the members of the Barunastra ITS Team, when releasing the Nala Proteus ship at the International Roboboat Competition 2023 race arena in Florida, USAFariz Rayyan Januar, General Manager of Barunastra ITS 2023, who was contacted online, explained that there were two categories at the race this time. The first is the autonomous category of the roboboat made, which competes with how capable the ship is made in moving automatically, and the second is the design documentation category.

One of the Barunastra ITS Team members when releasing the Nala Proteus ship in the International Roboboat Competition 2023 race arena in Florida, USA.

Several stages must be passed in the design documentation category, namely design reports, team videos, and offline presentations in front of local judges. In this offline presentation, participants are asked to explain various things about the roboboat that will be contested later, starting from the strategy in solving, the design used, to how the ship is made and works.

Furthermore, Rayyan also explained the competition mechanism in the autonomous category. Like other competitions, the team under Dr. Rudy Dikairono ST MT, Muhammad Lukman Hakim ST MT, and Muhtadin ST MT needs to undergo three rounds in this category, namely qualifications, semifinals, and finals.

“In these three stages, we (the competition participants) were given eight missions, and to be able to pass the qualification round, we need to complete at least three missions,” said Rayyan.

The Nala Proteus ship from the Barunastra ITS Team while undergoing the missions given at the International Roboboat Competition (IRC) 2023 in Florida, USA

After passing the qualifying round, the Department of Ship Systems Engineering student continued that the participants who passed would undergo an assessment with a standings system to advance to the next round. “The same assessment system and mission are also applied in the final round, but with a tighter system,” he added. Rayyan hopes that in addition to the title achieved by the Barunastra ITS Team, the Barunastra ITS Team can try even higher levels in the future. “One of them is by participating in the RobotX Competition, which competes in ships with a larger scale and more sophisticated technology,” he said.

The Barunastra ITS team, with its newest ship, Nala Proteus, as it prepares to race in Florida, USA

At the end of the interview, Rayyan representing the ITS Barunastra Team expressed his gratitude to the parties who have supported him so far. Not only support from ITS and IKA ITS but also from various parties and companies that have contributed to helping the ITS Barunastra Team to be able to participate in IRC 2023. Among others from PT PLN, PT Pertamina Patra Niaga, PT Meratus, PT Airfast Indonesia, PT Harbour Energy, PT PN X, PT Bukit Asam, and PT Petrokimia Gresik. (ITS Public Relation)

Reporter: Muhammad Fadhil Alfaruqi