A team of four students of the Humanitarian Technology (HuT) Labs, Department of Electronics and Communication, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri campus, were selected to the elite team from selected countries to participate in the 29^th edition of RoboCon International Design Contest (IDC) 2018 to be held at Tokyo Institute of Technology from August 6-18, 2018. Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, is the host university for the IDC 2018 and will provide all the lab facilities including mechanical, electrical and electronics labs and the materials and components required to build the robot.

The team of Abhijeeth Prem, Sarveswara Reddy, Bhanu Teja P and Sriniketh, 3^rd year, Department of Electronics and Communication, School of Engineering, Amritapuri campus, will be the first team ever from India, in 29 years since the inception of the event in 1990, to take part in one of the unique and best robotic competitions in the world.

The participation is only by invitation and the organizers invite only one team from any country, mostly from the top universities. The only single teams, from top universities of 15 countries, who have participated in IDC so far, included Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Seoul National University, University of Sao Paulo, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, etc.

The competition is unique in the way it is held. The teams are not expected to build a robot and take it to the competition, as is usually the case. Also, the teams are formed during the competition with each team consisting of students from different universities. They have to build the robot from scratch during the competition which will span two weeks. Our students will get chance to be work with students from top universities around the world. They will also get an opportunity to network with various professors from these top universities who accompany the students. The host university takes care of the accommodation and food during this period.

IDC is an educational event that has been held since 1990 to foster and develop the creativity, technique and international experience of young future engineers. Every year, the contest is hosted in rotation by the universities in the various parts of the world. International teams of students take part in the contest, designing and building remotely controlled robots. The IDC is not a competition of one country or university against another, but an exercise of communication and cooperation among students, professors and instructors from the different Engineering Schools involved.