INESC TEC ruled the roost at a competition in Barcelos: awards, medals and a humanoid robot 

INESC TEC travelled to Barcelos to collect awards and medals at the Festival Nacional de Robótica. A delegation of 10 researchers from the Institute stood out in the Dragster and Robot@Factory competitions. From Porto, the team also brought a humanoid robot that delivered a live demonstration. 

The best result came in the Dragster event, where the team made up of Ricardo Sousa, Maria Lopes, João Martins, José Sarmento and José Carvalho (SYSTEC) secured first place on the podium for INESC TEC. 

In this event, INESC TEC researchers developed a robotic solution capable of beating competitors in a straight-line speed challenge. The goal was simple: go from the start to the finish line in the shortest possible time, with no turns or detours – just pure speed on a short track. 

INESC TEC researcher António Paulo Moreira travelled with the team from Porto for the three-day competition in Barcelos and highlighted their participation in the Robot@Factory event. There, researchers and master’s students (most of them completing their theses at INESC TEC) Afonso Mateus, José Costa, Tomás Ribeiro, Tomás Ribas, Helena Moutinho and Igor Ponomarov achieved an “excellent performance”, securing first place (Robot@Factory Lite) and second place (Robot@Factory 4.0).

The Robot@Factory 4.0 challenge simulated the operation of an automated factory, with robots carrying out logistics tasks autonomously. Everything ought to be completed independently and in the shortest possible time. Robot@Factory Lite follows the same principle as Robot@Factory 4.0 but introduced slight differences, particularly in the navigation system – which used lines on the floor to guide the robot. 

António Paulo Moreira, who is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP-DEEC), praised the INESC TEC humanoid robot demonstration. During the event, it was able to “map the environment, localise itself and navigate, being the only one capable of performing all these tasks autonomously within the duration of the Festival”. 

INESC TEC has now achieved consecutive victories at the Festival Nacional de Robótica. According to the Portuguese Robotics Society, the event is currently the largest scientific gathering with robotics competitions in Portugal, taking place annually since its first edition in 2001, in various locations across the country.