Indonesia`s robot finished second in int'l competition

SURABAYA (Antara): Indonesia`s G-Rush robot team came out second in the Robot Contest (Robocon) 2007 Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday night local time.

According to Director of the Surabaya Electronic Polytechnic (PENS) of the Surabaya Institute of Technology (ITS) Dr Titon Dutono M.Eng in Vietnam, the robot team from PENS emerged second after it was beaten by China in the final.

"However, the achievement was actually more than the target, as the ITS set the target of entering the semifinals only, in view of highly prospective team from Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam," he said.

Especially, he added, that the robot of ITS was not inferior to that of the Chinese defending champions.

It was also not too easy for the G-Rush robot to reach the finals. In the quarterfinals it proved to be better than the Thai participant which had beaten the ITS team in the quarterfinals in Kuala Lumpur in 2006.

"The quarterfinals was like an opportunity for revenge of last year`s defeat," he said.

In the semi finals, the G-Rush robot4 also defeated the Malaysian strong rival.

Separately, head of the G-Rush team Pramudya Airlangga said he was a little disappointed with the referee`s lack of neutrality.

"But at least this year we managed to improve the achievement of the ITS robot team," he said.

A total of 19 teams from 18 countries took part in the international robot contest namely Vietnam (two teams), China, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Egypt, Fiji, Hongkong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. (***)