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Robot-sumo

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Robot-sumo (Japanese: ロボット相撲), or robo-sumo, is is an engineering and robotics competition in which two robots attempt to push each other out of a circular arena (in a similar fashion to the sport of sumo).The robots used in this competition are called "sumo robots" or "sumobots" or simply "sumos".[1]

Competitions typically involve autonomously operated, wheeled mobile robots. The engineering challenges are for the robot to find its opponent (usually accomplished with infrared or ultra-sonic sensors) and to push it out of the flat arena. A robot should also avoid leaving the arena, usually by means of a sensor that detects the edge [2]. The most common mechanical design is to use an angled blade at the front to lift the opposing robot and push it more easily. Usually tilted at about a 45-degree angle towards the back of the robot, this blade has an adjustable height for different tactics.

Robot-sumo (Mega Sumo) match in Brazil [2]. Note the robot on the left being lifted by the opponent's angled blade after a direct head-on collision.

Robot-Sumo originated in Japan in 1989 when FUJISOFT Inc. organized the first All Japan Robot Sumo Tournament (Japanese: 全日本ロボット相撲大会 zen'nippon robotto sumou taikai). Since then, robot-sumo has spread and has been one of the most popular robotics competitions in the world, mainly in Europe, Mexico and Brazil. Although high-performance competitions (events between universities teams and graduated engineers) require highly complex engineering projects, it is often used as an educational tool for simpler protoypes in schools.

History

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Robot-Sumo began in Japan with the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament organized by FUJISOFT Inc. in 1989, with 33 participants. Since then, this tournament has been held annually in Tokyo. The competition began with an idea from the president of FUJISOFT Inc., Hiroshi Nozawa, whose goal was to promote his company and recruit excellent human resources. But above all, it was because of his desire to give a dream to the younger people who are responsible for the future of his country, and because of the desire to create an environment to improve the quality of "Monozukuri" in Japan [3]. Initially, Robot Sumo only included the class that would be later known as Mega Sumo or Sumo 3kg class.

In 1992, the FUJISOFT tournament was held at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan, where the tournament is still held today. In 1998, the tournament had 2,929 participants. That same year, the first Robot-Sumo competition was held outside of Japan, in the United States. In 2004, at the 15th edition of the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament, the tournament introduced the 10kg class, but it would be discontinued in 2007.

Also in 2004, robot-sumo competitions were included in the ROBOlympics (later renamed RoboGames) [4], one of the largest robotics events at the time, held in the USA. This event helped popularize sumo competitions around the world and led to the creation of categories derived from 3kg class, such as LEGO Sumo, Mini Sumo, among others, which further popularized the category as a whole, leading to the emergence of many competitions around the world, such as in Mexico, Europe, and South America.

In 2008, RoboCore organized the first official national Robot-Sumo tournament in Brazil as part of the national robotics competition Winter Challenge [5], mainly contested by universitarian teams from the country. In this competition, Sumo 3kg Auto, Sumo 3kg RC and Sumo LEGO classes were held. There were 6 robots in the Sumo 3kg classes.

With this worldwide popularity, in 2008, the first edition of the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament was held with international competitors. Due to its success in the following years, in 2014, the first edition of the International Robot-Sumo Tournament (Japanese: 世界大会 sekai taikai) was held, separating the japanese national competition as All Japan (Japanese: 全国大会 zenkoku taikai), with only the japanese champions and runner-ups advancing to the world competition. European teams achieved significant results in the 3kg Auto class, including podiums and titles in the International Robot-Sumo Tournament [3]. In 2017, the last edition of the International Robot-Sumo Tournament was marked by Mexican dominance in the Mega Sumo RC class, taking the first three positions and ahead of the Japanese champions [6].

In 2018, FUJISOFT reunified the japanese All Japan competition with the International Tournament into a single tournament, as it was before 2014, retaining the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament name and labeling the final stage as the Grand Final in english language [7]. In 2019, the competition was in its 31st edition, and had the participation of more than 20 countries, 104 autonomous robots and 78 radio-controlled robots in the Grand Final [8]. With the competition unified again, robots from Japan once again dominated the top positions of the competition [3].

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, the 2020 edition (32nd edition) of the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament was cancelled. In 2021 and 2022, FUJISOFT organized an alternative competition for the 32nd and 33rd editions remotely for high school competitors (Japanese: 高校学校 koukougakkou), which consisted of a sumo robot design contest [9][10].

In 2022, RoboCore from Brazil remodeled its main and largest robotics competition (Winter Challenge) into the RoboCore Experience (RCX) [11], hosting the Mega Sumo, Mini Sumo and LEGO Sumo tournaments, in addition to the Combat, Line Follower, Robot Hockey, Robot Trekking, ArtBot and Robot Soccer competitions [12]. The RoboCore Experience was hosted together with Campus Party Brazil in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 editions [11]. The 2023 RCX had 1330 registered competitors and almost 700 robots in all robotics categories.

In 2022, with the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, FUJISOFT once again organized the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament (34th edition), but only for local competitors. That year, the Mini Sumo class, which was already widely practiced worldwide, was officially introduced in Japan for the first time [13]. In 2023, All Japan, in its 35th edition, returned qualifying participants from overseas competitions.

Rules

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The principle of a robot-sumo fight consists of two robots competing to push the opponent out of the arena. The use of mechanisms that physically damage the opposing robot is not permitted. Competitions are usually divided in Autonomous (Auto) category, for robots that operate autonomously, and Radio-controlled (RC) category, for robots operated by a person. The standars competitions involve wheeled robots, but there are some rare variations for humanoid robots [14].

Matches are typically a series of 3 rounds, with the winner being the one who gets the most round wins. A round usually consists of (1) Positioning, (2) Preparation, and (3) Fight proper. In initial Positioning, a judge signals each operator to position each robot at the same time within the competition's permitted positioning limits. The judge then allows each operator to Prepare to select routines and strategies (in the case of the Auto category) or prepare the remote control (in the case of the RC category). To begin the Fight proper, the judge signals the start of the round according to the competition rules, and the winner of the round is the robot that pushes the opponent out of the arena. In the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament, the judge, at the start of a fight, usually announces "Hakkeyoi nokotta" (はっきよい 残った), which can be imprecisely translated as "Ready? Go!" [15].

Competitors preparing the robots before a Mega Sumo fight at All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament 2018.

In general, the rules may vary in some details from tournament to tournament (arena specifications, starting positioning, handling of exceptions, ...) especially in tournaments of a more educational nature, held in educational institutions as a didactic activity. High level competitions tend to follow standardized rules, such as the rules from All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament.

For example, FUJISOFT requires the usage of a standardized remote controller for Autonomous category in the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament and its approved overseas tournaments. This remote controller uses infrared light so the judge control the start and the stop of the routines execution [16]. The specifications are: wavelength of 950 nm, service frequency: 38-40 kHz, and any Sony brand remote control can be used for the signal. The activation process works with 3 states: Key 1: Ready; Key 2: Start; Key 3: Stop.

Competitions are usually divided into different weight and size classes. The main standardized classes adopted worldwide are Mega Sumo and Mini Sumo [17].

Mega Sumo

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Mega Sumo, also called Standard Class, Sumo 3kg class, or simply Robot-Sumo, is the original class from All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament and the most prestigious worldwide. In this class, robots are limited in weight to 3 kg and in dimensions to 20 cm x 20 cm, with no height limit [16].

Mega Sumo Auto fight between 獅子奮迅 (in the left) and Galena from ThundeRatz (in the right) at the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament 2024. Magnets allow robots to move at high speed with high precision and power.

In this class, the dohyō should ideally be a 5cm in height circular aluminum structure with a diameter of 154cm (+/- 50mm), including the border line (Tawara), and covered by a black cold-rolled steel (SPCC) sheet located on top [16]. Since the dohyō is made of steel, it allows the use of magnets to increase the interaction force between the robot and the arena. Because of this, many robots can achieve normal force values ​​that surpass 100 kgf [18].

This class is usually divided in Mega Sumo Auto (Autonomous) and Mega Sumo RC (Radio-controlled).

Mini Sumo

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In the Mini Sumo class (also called Sumo 500g class) robots have a weight limit of up to 500 g and are limited to 10 cm x 10 cm, with no height limit.

Mini Sumo match in Brazil [19]

The dohyō should be a circular wooden board with a diameter of 77cm (including the Tawara), covered by a formica laminate located on top, 2.5cm in height. The arena is made of wood, and therefore the robots are not affected by the force of magnets [20].

This class is also usually divided in Mini Sumo Auto (Autonomous) and Mini Sumo RC (Radio-controlled).

Because it is simpler than the 3kg class, it usually has a greater number of competitors and competitions, making it one of the most popular classes in the world. Not an original class from All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament, the class was added to the event as of 2022, officially introducing the mini sumo in Japan [21].

Mini Sumo

Minor Classes

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There are also other standardized classes in competitions around the world. Some common examples are listed below:

  • Sumo 10 kg class: up to 10 kg, dimensions of 30 cm x 30 cm, no height limit, steel arena. Class hosted between 2004 and 2007 by All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament, but currently discontinued.
  • Mega Sumo (Wooden Arena): same as Mega Sumo, but with wooden arena.
  • Micro Sumo: up to 100 g, must fit in a 5 cm cube, wooden arena.
  • Nano Sumo: up to 50 g, must fit in a 2.5 cm cube, wooden arena.
  • Pico Sumo: up to 25 g, must fit in a 1.25 cm cube, wooden arena.
  • LEGO Sumo: robots must be made entirely of Lego pieces, wooden arena.
LEGO Sumo match in Brazil.

Regional competitions might host their own variations as well. The National Robotics Challenge, in the USA, hosted the following ones:

Tournaments

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Currently, several Robot-Sumo tournaments are held around the world. Robot sumo competitions range from school and educational tournaments within educational institutions to engineering competitions between university students and professionals and graduate engineers. Competitors are usually organized into teams, consisting of sumo robots and the members responsible for their operation and maintenance during the event.

Competitions adopt different competition formats, usually knockout bracket competitions, ranging from single elimination systems to systems with group phases or double elimination. Teams may register more than one robot per event, and confrontations between robots from the same team are possible.

As for the high level competition, Japan is the world's leading power in this category, and the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament is the most prestigious competition in the world. In Asia, there are also important competitions in China, such as the RobotChallenge [22], and in Mongolia.

In Europe, countries such as Turkey, Romania and Poland organize the main European competitions, such as the RoboChallenge [23], focused mainly on autonomous sumo.

In the Americas, the former RoboGames, the largest robotics competition in the world at the time, included several Sumo categories in its program, bringing together international competitors from all over the world. Mexico, one of the world powers in the category, especially in Sumo 3kg RC and Mini-Sumo, hosts several robot-sumo competitions. In Brazil, RoboCore hosts and sanctions the main robot competitions of the country for Robot Combat, but also for Line Follower and Robot-Sumo as well [12]. Several competitions in Brazil, mainly RoboCore sanctioned ones, are also qualifiers for the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament.

Japan

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Japan currently hosts the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament, the first robot-sumo competition and the most prestigious tournament in the world.

All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament

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The All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament (Japanese: 全日本ロボット相撲大会 zen'nippon robotto sumou taikai) was founded in 1989 by FUJISOFT Inc, creating the first Robot-Sumo competition. It is the world's premier competition for Mega Sumo, both Auto and RC, and since 2008, it has become the world's leading competition with robots from over 20 countries participating [3]. Since 2022, it has also been hosting Mini-Sumo competitions (Auto and RC) [3].

The competition is divided into a "Regional Stage" (Japanese: 地区大会 chiku taikai) and the "Grand Final" (Japanese: 全国大会 zenkoku taikai). The Regional Stage consists of regional tournaments held in Japan between August and October for participants based in Japan, with the top performers from each tournament qualifying for the Grand Final. For international representatives, qualification for the Grand Final is done through international tournaments approved by FUJISOFT, in countries such as Mexico, Turkey and Brazil, which forms the "Overseas Tournaments" slots (Japanese: 海外大会枠 kaigai taikai-waku).The 2024 edition reserved a total of 57 slots for the Regional Stage and 40 slots for Overseas Tournaments for each Mega Sumo Auto and RC classes tournaments [24].

Both the Regional Stage and Grand Final tournaments currently adopt a single-elimination format. The Grand Final is held in December in Tokyo at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan [3].

All Japan High School Robot-Sumo Tournament

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FUJISOFT also organizes the All Japan High School Robot-Sumo Tournament (Japanese: 高校生 全国大会 kōkōsei zenkoku taikai) exclusively for robots developed by students from secondary education in Japan [25].

Brazil

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Widely known for robot combat competitions, robot-sumo has attained increasing attention in the country, mainly from teams from the top universities of the country. In particular, robot-sumo has been added to the main robotics competitions contested by teams of engineering and technology students from institutes at Technical and Higher Education levels, such as University of São Paulo, Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. These competitions are also usually open to teams not directly linked with academic institutions, including independent teams of graduated engineers and professionals.

RoboCore

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RoboCore is an online store, developer and manufacturer of boards and kits in Brazil and an organizer of robotics events [26]. RoboCore organizes and sanctions a number of robotics competitions in Brazil, including in its program Robot Combat, Line Follower, Robot Trekking and Robot-Sumo competitions, attracting mainly universitarian and technical education level teams [12]. The current major RoboCore robotics competition is the RoboCore Experience (RCX, and former Winter/Summer Challenge) [11].

The Robot-Sumo competitions organized or sanctioned by RoboCore are among the most prestigious in the country. RoboCore Experience is the major robot-sumo event in Brazil, but the IRONCup, the RSM Challenge and the RoboChallenge Brasil have also become prominent competitions [12].

The classes usually included in RoboCore tournaments program are Sumo 3kg RC, Sumo 3kg Auto, Mini Sumo (Auto and RC) and LEGO Sumo. In addition, there is a separate LEGO Sumo class exclusively for teams formed by elementary and high school students, the Junior LEGO Sumo.

Mega Sumo match from a brazilian RoboCore tournament in 2017.

RoboCore tournaments usually adopt the double-elimination system, in which there is a main bracket (called the "winners' bracket") and a secondary bracket of robots transferred after losing a match in the main bracket (called the "losers' bracket"). Robots that lose in the losers bracket are eliminated from the tournament. The tournament final consists of the winner of the winners' bracket competing against the remaining robot from the losers' bracket. Robot-Sumo tournaments from RoboCore usually adopt a "double final" format, in which the robot coming from the losers' bracket must win two matches of the final to become the tournament champion, while the robot coming from the winners' bracket must win only one match. This is due to the principle that for a robot to be eliminated, it must suffer two defeats in the event.

RoboCore competitions are also usually approved by FUJISOFT as qualifiers for the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament in the Mega Sumo and Mini Sumo classes.

Minor Tournaments

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Though RoboCore organizes and sanctions a number of events, most of them are hosted in the Southeast region of Brazil, mainly in the São Paulo state. Different academic institutions have also been organizing regional tournaments, mainly in the Northeast and South regions of Brazil.

References

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  1. ^ What is Robot-sumo in FSI All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament
  2. ^ a b "ThundeRatz | Moai". thunderatz.org. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "ここに歴史あり｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  4. ^ "Results from ROBOlympics 2004". robogames.net. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  5. ^ "RoboCore".
  6. ^ "全日本の部全国大会｜第29回｜大会結果｜ロボット相撲大会｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  7. ^ "第30回｜大会結果｜ここに歴史あり｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  8. ^ "全国大会｜第31回｜大会結果｜ロボット相撲大会｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  9. ^ "第32回｜大会結果｜ここに歴史あり｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  10. ^ "第33回｜大会結果｜ここに歴史あり｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  11. ^ a b c "HOME". Robocore_XP_CPBR17 (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  12. ^ a b c d "RoboCore Event Manager". events.robocore.net. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  13. ^ "第34回｜大会結果｜ここに歴史あり｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  14. ^ "RoboGames Event Schedule and Rules". robogames.net. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  15. ^ "outc0000.html". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  16. ^ a b c "試合のルール｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  17. ^ Unified Robot Sumo Rules (English)
  18. ^ "ThundeRatz | Stonehenge". thunderatz.org. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  19. ^ "ThundeRatz | Ônix". thunderatz.org. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  20. ^ "Unified Sumo Robot Rules". robogames.net. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  21. ^ "第34回｜大会結果｜ここに歴史あり｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  22. ^ "首页-RobotChallenge". robotchallenge.org.cn. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  23. ^ "Robochallenge - Index". bfrz.ro. Archived from the original on 2022-11-30. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  24. ^ "ロボット相撲大会｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  25. ^ "ごあいさつ｜全日本ロボット相撲大会 - ALL JAPAN ROBOT-SUMO TOURNAMENT". www.fsi.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  26. ^ RoboCore. "RoboCore // A loja virtual do maker brasileiro". RoboCore (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2025-01-01.
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Competitions

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Competitors/Teams

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