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Recently, Team Atlas has proudly represented Bangladesh at the "YANTRA 9.0 International Robotics Competition" in Nepal, achieving the Best Robot Design & Strategy Award at the prestigious President's Cup Yantra Teens. Building a total of five robots for the competition on the motion of "Garbage to Gold" and pulling off the task is as magical as it seems.
In a conversation with the writer, Team Atlas delves into their personal motivation toward robotics and ambition of saving the environment through technology. With a team of 12 members, winning the Best Design & Strategy Award at the Yantra 9.0 International Robotics Competition, has been an overwhelming experience.
Sunny Jubayer, the founder and leader of Team Atlas, shares that his fascination with robotics started with movies like "Transformers" from his childhood. His target was to build the community to work in technology to make daily lives easier. With that prospect, he started doing workshops from class five. A primary school student doing workshops on robotics is as rare as it gets in Bangladesh.
In class seven, Sunny Jubayer worked on different government projects, and in class eight, he started working with BUET professors regarding robotics. In March 2016, he started making a team, known as Team Atlas in these days. Today, there are more than 150 active members; in addition, there are alumni who are still connected with the team, providing support from time to time.
Because of their work in technology development with Bangladeshi students, Team Atlas won the 2023 Joy Bangla Youth Award among 12 institutes and the Digital Bangladesh Award from the prime minister. Sunny Jubayer says about training new members, "We are training them in every part of robotics, as we know the fourth industrial revolution will rely on robotics and AI (artificial intelligence."
The Yantra 9.0 International Robotics Competition participating team had dreamers of all ages, ranging from intermediate students to master's students. They had different stories and backgrounds as in how they joined Team Atlas. This is how Team Atlas celebrates a diverse community that has a shared interest in technology and robotics.
Sunny Jubaer, the project coordinator, explains that the team made a total of five robots for the contest, targeting different garbage to collect, as the competition's project was to collect garbage and break the other team's garbage pile by throwing balls with robots.
Ezhar Hossain Ifty, who completed HSC in 2023 from Dhaka Imperial College, has been learning robotics from class seven, emphasises their ball-throwing soccer-like game. He was the main pilot in this contest to operate the robots. He says, "All teams had three robots, but we played with one robot, as the other two had some technical issues. Still, we won the game, and it was a magnificent moment to show the world our potential."
Md Tanjir Arafat Turjo and Mohammad Mehran Islam Mahi, both from BAF Shaheen College, respectively from the HSC 2023 and HSC 2024 batch, worked on this project together, with the earlier one being involved in hardware and the latter being the bot designer. Mahi talks about how he grew interested in robotics from 10th grade, whereas Turjo talks about how those toy cars inspired him to explore more in mechanism/robotics from childhood.
For this generation, probably childhood interest in toy cars or electronic devices is the most significant influencer in students growing interested in technology and robotics, except for some students who were first enthralled by Rajnikanth's ‘Enthiran’ (‘Robot’ in Hindi version) movie. Just like Turjo and Ifty's interest in toy cars, Moskur Rahman Mahir, an A-level candidate, was also fascinated by electronic equipment and later joined Team Atlas after one of his teachers recommended it. Mahir mainly worked in mechanical sectors in this project, e.g., RC controlling and electrical connection.
The ‘Robot’ movie fascination had an influence on Atik Shahriar Hasan and Hasibur Rahman Tareq. Atik, who completed HSC in 2023 from Dawood Public School and College, worked for Bot programming, the Ball Shooting accuracy maintenance, and Tareq, an IUBAT final year student in electrical engineering, worked in the Soccer Board section, including circuit, body designing, speed controlling, etc. Tareq also works at his university's Robotics Club, where he had an outstanding experience collaborating with IIT Bombay.
Another HSC pass student from batch 2023 Al Mahmud Alif shares that he came to Dhaka at the intermediate level for the opportunities, as he did not have them back in the village. This creative individual also has experience in robot-sketchings. He said that joining Team Atlas was a "Turning Point of Life" to him, as he got the opportunity to learn sensors, modules, and other aspects of robotics. Before this Nepal Tour, Alif also participated in the WRC Robotics Championship Worldwide with Team Atlas, where they won the Silver Medal, being first runner-up.
At Team Atlas, people with a passion for technology get an opportunity, even if they are not from a STEM background. For example, a business student Fahim Shahriyar shares that he was fascinated by technology back in eighth grade or even earlier than that. Studying business studies, he did not have the scope to get into science and research, but he did start learning programming languages. Later, he joined Team Atlas and started learning many aspects of robotics. The full-time job holder says, "I really find the Friday Lab Classes very helpful, as I have been learning from the basics." At Yantra's competition, he worked in the circuit, controlling, and piloting sections.
Every project has its risks and obstacles. About Team Atlas's obstacles in this outstanding recent achievement, Atik delves into the matter of obstacles. He shares, "Our robot was declined two days before the competition because of a height issue. We had to work heart and soul, staying awake all night, with one sleeping at a time." Still, they completed their project and won 2024's first international award for Bangladesh.
In a practical world, this type of technology is indispensable, considering the amount of waste in rivers and pollution in Bangladesh. According to Sunny Jubayer, they made those robots with the ambition of putting their main target forward, which is ‘Save the Environment’. In addition, he says that this sort of robot is very much feasible on the shores of Cox's Bazar or Saint Martin. With this prospect, Team Atlas built a water cleaning robot, which will be able to absorb waste from water bodies.