Participants from different countries will participate; prize money is Rs 10 lakh

Pune: Techfest 2017 organised by IIT-Bombay will witness an International Robowars competition which will be launched during the festival scheduled for December 29-31. 

Participants from Russia, Brazil, United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Australia will participate in it. Robowars was incorporated as a part of Techfest in 2009 with a vision to give engineering students a platform to showcase their bots in a thrilling robot combat competition and promote robot sports as a professional career in India. The prize money has been increased to Rs 10 lakh.

Another upgradation of the festival will be that Robowars challenge will be shown live in front of 2,000 people witnessing the competition. This science and technology festival is patronised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Make in India and Digital India.

It is expected that it will attract a footfall of more than 1,60,000 people comprising mainly the youth from across the nation and an outreach of over 2,500 colleges across India and over 500 overseas. 

“This will boost robotics as a profession in India and also give a platform to the aspirants to compete internationally. Moreover, it has been discussed that e-sports can be incorporated into Olympics by 2024, and robot combat by 2028. 

It’s critical for organizations like Techfest, IIT Bombay to start sowing the seeds for international glory on behalf of India,” said Robowars Manager, Sachit Mehrotra.