The 9th international open festival of children’s scientific and technological creativity ROBOART was held at 26th of March in the main building of Voronezh State University. After two years, during which pandemic restrictions did not allow meetings to be held, ROBOART has finally returned to its usual offline format. Oleg Grishaev, Vice-Rector for Student Affairs and Social Development of Voronezh State University, mentioned this at the opening ceremony.
Traditionally, the festival's partner was the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics of Voronezh State University. At the opening ceremony of the festival, the dean of the faculty, Sergey Medvedev, wished the participants that their ideas and fantasies be embodied in a product.
Interregional Group “Innovative Technologies and Robotic Systems” (INTEKHROS) designed a robot weighing more than 4 tons, which was installed on the day of the festival in front of the main building of Voronezh State University. This robot has become a kind of visible and material symbol of the festival – an ideal for young engineers and roboticists, what they are aiming for. At the opening ceremony in the auditorium of the main building, Ratibor Konovalyuk, Development Director of INTEHROS said:
“ROBOART teaches people to think and create. However, in robotics, you have to be a little crazy and reckless. Everything important that is happening now is happening at your fingertips.
This year, more than 1,000 applications were submitted for the competition, following the selection of which representatives of more than 40 regions of Russia became participants. Three directions of the festival were held in a mixed face-to-face and online format, the participants were contestants from 22 settlements and 39 educational organizations located outside of Voronezh.
The participants of the festival, secondary and high school students, presented their technical developments, the main task of which was to facilitate human work and increase the efficiency of scientific and industrial fields. The application of these "inventions" is very different: from elementary everyday moments to complex infrastructural and industrial communications. Constructor robots, models of various kinds of machines, manned objects and even unmanned vehicles were presented at the festival. All this was located in almost 20 laboratories, which at the time of the festival were the classrooms of the main building. By the names of the laboratories it was possible to understand what was happening in them: "Flying over the abyss", "Robot battle", "Explorer robots", "UFO – unusual flying objects", etc.
The formats of the various festival items were also very different: from classical exhibitions and demonstrations of objects to competitions of technical projects. Thus, for example, in the foyer there was an exhibition "Laboratory: Time Machine ", supported by the ANO "Visio of the Future" fund; interactive platforms of the festival partners worked, such as, for example, the Atomic Energy Information Centre, the Experimental Technical School, and even the Nikitin Regional Scientific Library. In the era of robots, sometimes there is a very strong desire to pick up an ordinary book and the organizers of the festival anticipated this desire.
The results of the competition were announced at the awards ceremony, where the winners and prize-winners received diplomas and souvenirs from the organizers and partners of the festival.
