The Ski Robot Challenge was held in Welli Hilli Park in Gangwon-do Province on February 12 during the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games.

A human-like robot, “Rudolph,” which undergraduate and graduate students of Seoul Tech personally developed (advisor: Professor Kim Young-seog), participated in the world’s first Ski Robot Challenge (Edge of Robot). Hosted by the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and organized by the Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement (KIRIA) and the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT), among others, the contest was held in Welli Hilli Park in Gangwon-do Province on February 12 during the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games.

A total of eight teams participated, including Seoul Tech (Rudolph): Hanyang University (Diana), Myongji University (MHSRP), Kookmin University (R.O.K.), Kyungpook National University (Alexi), KAIST (TiBo), Korea Institute of Robot and Convergence (SKIRO), and Mini Robot (Taekwon V).

In particular, Seoul Tech’s humanoid robot, Rudolph, was produced to be the most similar to human size and form at a height of 160 cm and weight of 60 kg. Of the participating robots, it boasted of the highest height and the heaviest weight. In addition, its main characteristic was that it was designed not to suffer from any board defect even if snow entered the upper body although it was neither covered nor wearing ski clothes. Seoul Tech’s Rudolph won second place at the order deciding competition held on February 11, next to Korea Institute of Robot and Convergence. However, it failed to rank among the top three during the main contest held on February 12, because of its particularly large body that was blown away by strong winds, which was a regrettable incident.

The contest had robots with humanoid technology applied, competing in the autonomous driving and remote control sections. The mission to complete for the evaluation was having the robots ski following Olympic Alpine Ski contest regulations, which were partially amended to fit robots. The Ski Robot Challenge regulations entailed giving points according to the number of gates passed and records posted by the robot athletes even if they did not get to pass all gates to check their vibration control and various technologies, such as A-shape driving and 11-shape driving. During the main contest, opportunities were given three times to the team leader, and the team with the highest score among them (addition of mission score and record score) won. 

 “We have had ski robots developed, but we never had official records of robot ski contests,” said Oh Jun-ho, who supervised the robot supporting team of the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, emphasizing that the contest was the “world’s first.”

* Seoul Tech’s human-like ski robot “Rudolph” team
ㅇAdvisor: Professor Kim Young-seog (Department of Mechanical System and Design Engineering)
ㅇParticipating professors: Ha Jong-eun (Department of Mechanical Engineering and Automotive Engineering) and Kim Jung-yup (Department of Mechanical System and Design Engineering)
ㅇParticipating students:
-Graduate: Lee U-jae (Department of Mechanical Design and Robot Engineering) and Jang Gyeong-seok (Department of Automotive Engineering)
-Undergraduate (Department of Mechanical System and Design Engineering): Yeom Gwang-u, Lee Deok-jin, Yun Hyeong-won, and Kim Do-yeong

▲ Seoul Tech’s ski robot “Rudolph” team taking a commemorative photo before participating in the contest