Students from the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri Campus, achieved outstanding success at the 36th IDC Robocon 2026, held at the Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, with Amrita students featuring in teams that won the First Prize, Second Prize and Best Design Prize.
The final competition was held on August 22, 2026, following an intensive two-week programme in which students from around the world worked together to design, build, program and test robotic systems. IDC Robocon is distinctive for its international collaborative format, with participants from different countries and universities grouped into multinational teams rather than competing solely as university teams.
The Amrita prize winners were:
The students were mentored by Prof. Rajesh Kannan Megalingam of the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Amritapuri Campus, who also serves as Director of HuT Labs.
Competing on a Global Robotics Platform
The 2026 edition brought together participants from 10 universities across seven countries, including institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Institute of Science Tokyo, Seoul National University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University and Chulalongkorn University.
Eight students from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham participated in the two-week programme, gaining an opportunity to collaborate with peers from different academic and cultural backgrounds while working under demanding engineering timelines.
IDC Robocon, or the International Design Contest, has been conducted since 1990 and is structured around collaborative, hands-on engineering. Students from different countries are placed in mixed teams and are required to develop functioning robots within a limited period, combining engineering design with creativity, communication, problem-solving and cross-cultural teamwork.
“AI to Science”
The theme of IDC Robocon 2026 was “AI to Science.” Teams were tasked with developing both teleoperated and autonomous robots capable of collecting balls and accurately placing them into designated goals.
Orange balls had to be placed in a goal featuring a human figure, while silver balls had to be placed in a goal featuring a robot figure. The challenge required effective integration of image recognition, autonomous decision-making, robot control, mechanical design and system-level engineering.
The competition was conducted at the Ookayama Campus of the Institute of Science Tokyo from August 10 to 22, with the final competition taking place on August 22.
Engineering Excellence Through Hands-on Learning
The three awards underscore the students’ ability to translate their academic and practical training into solutions under real-world engineering constraints. Developing a functional robotic system within two weeks, while collaborating with students from other countries, demanded adaptability, technical competence, teamwork and rapid problem-solving.
The achievement also reflects the strong emphasis on robotics, artificial intelligence and experiential engineering within the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering and HuT Labs at Amrita’s Amritapuri Campus.
Prof. Rajesh Kannan Megalingam congratulated the students for representing Amrita with distinction and noted that the accomplishment reflected not only their work during the competition but also the foundation they had developed through sustained learning, experimentation and hands-on robotics.
The success of Karthik, Prasanna and Koshy at IDC Robocon 2026 marks another significant international achievement for Amrita students and is expected to encourage more young engineers to participate in global robotics challenges and pursue innovation through collaboration, perseverance and engineering excellence.
