OREANDA-NEWS. October 04, 2013. Students of Nizhny Novgorod Automotive College, a profile educational institution of the Gorky Automobile Plant of GAZ Group, represented Russia for the first time at the European trials of robotic systems Eurathlon-2013, and took third place.

 European trials of robotic systems Eurathlon - an integrated event of European organizations involved in robotic developments - took place from 23 to 27 September 2013 in Germany in the town of Berchtesgaden.

Participation of the College team as winner of the vehicles-robots competitions “RoboCross-2012” and the right to represent Russia at this large-scale event is organized in the framework of the program “Robotics” of the Oleg Deripaska’s Fund “Vol’noe Delo” with full support of the GAZ Group.

This year, more than 15 teams from Germany, Austria, England, Poland, Russia, Finland and France were involved in Eurathlon-2013. The teams had the tasks for the robots to perform various scenarios based on real emergencies that occur in urban environments.

For example, the robot by remote control had to perform tasks to cut off valves and move hazardous substances, recognize and defuse bombs and explosives, prospect in smoky basements, etc.

The Russian team of the College participated in the most complex scenario - autonomous navigation using systems GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO. The tests of the robot they have created were held in harsh weather conditions, in mountainous and wooded area where the track has great slopes as well as variations on light conditions.

Despite the unfavorable environment for reception of the satellite navigation systems signal, the Nizhny Novgorod representatives were ahead of the Swiss team by points and won the third place. Second place went to the team from France, and the first place – to the German team.

Organizers of Eurathlon-2013 highly appreciated the work of the Nizhny Novgorod robotics team of the College and awarded them the victory in the category “Innovative solutions”.

Bo Andersson, President of the GAZ Group: “We are proud that the team of the base educational institution of the Gorky Automobile Plant honorably represented Russia at such a prestigious international event. Our company has been supporting the program “Robotics” for several years, and the youth that is busy finding creative engineering solutions is keen on creating automated devices. We prepare these guys to work at our enterprises, setting them specific tasks, so that the talented initiative youth joined the ranks of the production units and the engineering and design school”.