The world championship in robotics, RoboCup, was held from 25^th-21^st July in Nagoya, Japan. The YAZAKI Croatia Team became World Champion 2017 in the category “Rescue Maze”, expelling the competitors to the rear places and convincing with a well-designed and highly efficient robot.

The task was to construct and program a robot which simulates rescuing people in areas that are too dangerous for human rescuers. The robot must be able to carry out the rescue mission in a fully autonomous mode with no human assistance. The robot must be strong and smart enough to navigate through a treacherous terrain with hills, uneven lands and rubble without getting stuck. The robot needs to seek out the victims, dispense rescue kits, and signal the position to the rescuers so that they can take over.

The competition lasted several days and each day the teams get new and more difficult tasks. There are ten rounds in total and the points collected in each round define the final score and ranking.

The team members, Matej Novosad, Janko Pribičević and Ines Kušen – all students from Zagreb – were happy and grateful for YAZAKI’s sponsorship and therefore competed under the name YAZAKI Croatia. For the construction and programming of the robot, the team often worked on Saturdays and also spend most of their free time during their holidays to achieve the best possible result.

Their success received major attention in all significant Croatian media, whose representatives were also on arrival in Zagreb airport.

YAZAKI is very proud to have contributed to the success of the Croatian team. Congratulations for the outstanding performance at the RoboCup 2017!