Katapult Asia

Mar 16, 2023
Updated Apr 21, 2023

Submit your application via Google Form below:
https://forms.gle/d98pVyLDq9VqEEqcA

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UPDATED
More details of Industry Challenges here: https://katapultasia.org/2023/04/23/industry-design-challenges/

Welcome the inaugural ROBOFUN Hackathon and Industry Open-source Mobile Robotics Design Challenge, co-organised by Intel and SCUTTLE Robotics Asia. The purpose of the hackathon is for the students and lecturers trained in Autonomous Mobile Robotics to sharpen their skills in developing solutions to solve many real world problems using the SCUTTLE – Intel AMR Kit.

In this year’s pilot program, we will have teams from 5 different public and private universities – UM, UPM, UTAR, UTP and USM – competing to solve real world industry problems using the SCUTTLE – Intel AMR Kits.

In June 2023, MRANTI joined the program and kicked off the ROBOTHON track on 9th June 2023 leveraging the SCUTTLE – Intel AMR platform to open for more universities to participate and compete in the program.

The challenges for 2023 ROBOFUN Hackathon & ROBOTHON are in the following fields:
1. Manufacturing, warehousing and logistics in electrical & electronics (E&E), chemical, metals and machinery & equipment (M&E) industry;

2. Customer service, monitoring and maintenance in F&B and Retails industry (restaurants, supermarkets, shops etc);

3. Farming, maintenance, monitoring and harvesting activities in agriculture (traditional, modern, outdoor, indoor, urban etc) and food processing industry; and

4. Safety and security in housing areas, buildings, centres, laboratories, hospitals, businesses, factories etc.

These challenges are inspired by companies in these related industries and organizations driving the development of local talents and solutions related to robotics and related digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, IoT and automation in general. You can find the details of the challenges and participating companies sponsoring these challenges here – https://katapultasia.org/2023/04/23/industry-design-challenges/

High Level Summary of the Competition
Each university will conduct their own training program for students and lecturers in their respective universities. The competition will be conducted in 3 rounds as in the figure below;

(1) Preliminary Round (Dateline Extended)
Teams will submit proposals by 30th June 2023 and shortlisted proposals will be announced on 15th July 2023. Only 40 successful teams will selected to design and develop their prototypes between mid-June and mid-Sep 2023.

These 40 teams will be judged, tentatively by EARLY OCT to select 20 teams to compete in the Semi Final Round, targeting at MID OCT.

(2) Semi Final Round
Judging will be conducted in a physical setting by independent judges from industry and academia. Top 9 teams will be identified to continue in the Final Round, targeting at MID OCT.

(3) Final Round
Judging will be conducted by independent judges to select the 3 Best Teams with the most innovative solutions. Innovative and marketable solutions will be paired with industry partners providing the challenge statements for the hackathon.

General Information*:
1. While not anticipated, these rules and prizes are subject to changes at the discretion of the organisers at any time.
2. Judging will be done by a panel of independent judges. All decisions made by the judges for the preliminary rounds, semi-finals and finals are final and are not subject to appeal.
3. Intel and SCUTTLE Robotics reserve the right to disqualify any teams who violate the rules, regulations or spirit of the competition.
4. Recording and photography of all presentation materials and demo materials are prohibited in this challenge.

Team Eligibility:
1. The challenge is open to all current registered students (including undergraduate, and postgraduate students). All participants must be Malaysian, Permanent Residents (PR) or international students with valid student visa and faculty members of Malaysia-based tertiary education institutions, including university, college and polytechnic.
2. Each team must have at least one (1) active registered student at the participating university during the finale of the hackathon to be eligible to win any prizes.
2. Participation of members from other universities and/or industry are encouraged.

Team Size and Composition:
1. Each team must have at least 2 but not more than 5 members.
2. Each individual team member may participate in one team only. If any team member is in multiple teams, all those teams will be disqualified.
3. Each team is allowed to include supervisor from the respective university.

Proposal Submission requirements:
1. The proposal submitted for this challenge must be an original work of the team.
2. The University teams may reuse their course projects, research projects, or maker projects developed by them in this challenge.
3. All proposals submitted for this challenge must not be a project previously submitted for another contest.
4. Each team may only submit one project proposal. In the event of multiple submissions by a team, the last submission made by the team will be accepted for the contest.
5. All proposals are to be written in English or Bahasa Malaysia.
6. The due date for proposal submission is on 30th June 2023. Any proposal submitted later than 00:00am on 1st July, 2023 will not be accepted.

PROPOSAL SELECTION CRITERIA*

The team submission must be from any of the categories described earlier. The submission package must include:

1. Title of Proposed Project

2. Executive Summary (maximum 200 words) (20%)
2.1 Please include the brief description of project, specific challenge the proposal is addressing, literature reviews, objectives, methodology and expected outcomes from the project

3. Detailed Project Proposal
3.1 Project background including problem statement (20%)
3.2 Objective(s) of the Project (20%)
This project embarks on the following objectives:
1. To investigate …
2. To assess …
3. To develop …
4. To make recommendation based on …

4. Methodology (40%)
4.1 Expected Outcome of the Project
Teams are encouraged to make modifications of the AMR to suit and solve the challenges in specific industry.

THE LATEST TIMELINE (as of 5th Sep 2023) is as below;

PRELIMINARY ROUND

• Total of 40 proposal submissions will be shortlisted for the Preliminary Roung where teams will develop their concept into a working prototype between June and Sep 2023. Shortlisted teams will be notified by email on 16th June 2023.
• By EARLY OCT, a Preliminary Judging will be conducted to identify 20 projects to progress to the Semi Final Round. Teams will be judged based on the following criteria:
  • Design (30%)
  • Innovation (30%)
  • Project Value (20%)
  • Demonstration (20%)

SEMI-FINAL ROUND

• Semi Final and Final Rounds will be held by MID OCT 2023, and will be done physically. All shortlisted semi-finalists will first submit a video presenting the solutions, with duration of maximum of 7 minutes total video duration.
• A total of 9 teams shortlisted for the Final Round.
• The judges will assess each team’s set-up at the physical event. The 20 projects will be judged based on the following criteria;
  • Technology Readiness (25%)
  • Innovation (25%)
  • Marketability (30%)
  • Impact to Industry or Community (20%)

FINAL ROUND

• Final Round will be immediately conducted after the Semi Final Round by MID OCT 2023, and will be done physically.
• Each finalist team will take part in a 10 minutes team presentation before a panel of judges and a 5 minutes question and answer session. The panel of judges will have representation from respective industry, relevant agencies and venture building ecosystem.
• The final judging will be based on the following criteria;
  • Solutions Readiness (30%)
  • Product Market Fit and Potential (30%)
  • Team Composition (20%)
  • Oral Presentation (10%)
• The results will be announced upon completion of the final round.
• A total of 3 Most Innovative Solutions will be selected that have potential to be accelerated into a Minimum Viable Product and to be paired with industry partners sponsoring the Challenge Statements for the next stage of developing their solution to the specific market needs.

Note: * is opened for changes. Any changes on any one of these will be announced later to participants beforehand.