Robot-sumo - WikiHQ

Robot-sumo (Japanese: ロボット相撲) 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", "sumobots" or simply "sumos".

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 dohyō. A robot should also avoid leaving the arena, usually by means of a sensor that detects the edge. The most common mechanical design is to use a wedge with a blade at the front to lift the opposing robot and push it more easily. and robot-sumo has spread and has been one of the most popular robotics competitions in the world, such as in Europe, Mexico and Brazil,

History

Robot-Sumo began in Japan with the All Japan Robot Sumo Tournament [<nowiki/>jp] organized by FUJISOFT Inc. [<nowiki/>jp] for the first time in 1989 as an experimental tournament, with 33 participants. The first official edition was established in 1990, and, 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. Initially, Robot Sumo only included the class that would be later known as Mega Sumo or Sumo 3 kg 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. 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 3 kg class, such as Mini Sumo (500g class), LEGO 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. The exact origin of those derived robot-sumo classes is uncertain, however there are footage of Mini Sumo RC from 2002 at the RoboGames.

In 2004, at the 15th edition of the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament, the tournament introduced the 10 kg class, but it would be discontinued in 2007. originally a robot combat focused event mainly contested by universitarian teams from the country. In this competition, Sumo 3 kg Auto, Sumo 3 kg RC and Sumo LEGO classes were held. Until 2019, the Winter or Summer Challenge was the biggest robotics event in Brazil and Latin America, considered the "Brazilian National Robotics Championship" by many.

Also in 2008, with the increasing worldwide popularity of robot-sumo, FUJISOFT held for the first time an edition of the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament with international competitors, from United States, Mexico and Singapore.

In 2013, FUJISOFT held the first official edition of the International Robot-Sumo Tournament (Japanese: 世界大会 sekai taikai), separating from the Japanese national All Japan competition (Japanese: 全国大会 zenkoku taikai), with only the best Japanese (champions, and later runners-up) advancing to the world tournament, with both tournaments being held in the same day, in sequence. In this edition, tournament champions or national representatives from Austria, USA, Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Turkey, Mexico and Ecuador participated as overseas representatives.thumb|Parade of Nations in the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament 2019In 2018, FUJISOFT reunified the Japanese All Japan competition with the International Tournament into a single tournament, as it was before 2013, retaining the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament name and labeling the final stage as the "Grand Final". 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. With the competition unified again, robots from Japan once again dominated the top positions of the competition in 2018 and 2019.

In 2019, FUJISOFT also organized the first Mini-Sumo event in Japan, as a test event (called pre-tournament) in All Japan, only for Auto category.

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 Brazil, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, competitions were also canceled. In response, many teams began organizing remote competitions, in which participants controlled ready-made prototypes provided by the organization remotely through the internet. For the Robot Sumo category, the most popular was the Remote Mini Sumo RC class, in which participants controlled ready-made robots just like in a conventional competition, but remotely through the internet with a mobile phone application. These competitions attracted not only Brazilian competitors, but also international competitors such as Argentines and Indians.

In 2022, RoboCore from Brazil remodeled its main and largest robotics competition, the "Winter Challenge", into the "RoboCore Experience" (RCX), the largest robot combat event in Latin America. The competition hosts the Mega Sumo, Mini Sumo and LEGO Sumo tournaments, jointly with the Robot Combat, Line Follower, Robot Hockey, Robot Trekking, ArtBot and Robot Soccer competitions. The RoboCore Experience is held together with Campus Party Brazil.

In 2023, All Japan, in its 35th edition, returned qualifying participants from overseas competitions for Mega Sumo class, for the first time since 2019. This year, the Mini Sumo tournament was officially added to the All Japan, but only for japanese competitors. Also in 2024, the Mini Sumo of All Japan started qualifying overseas competitors as well. Brazilian teams achieved great success, making the Mini Sumo Auto final, and also taking 2nd and 3rd places in Mini Sumo RC in that year, with the first place being notably won by a Mexican team. . In June 2025, FUJISOFT announced that the 2025 edition will host the Mini Sumo as an official tournament, rather than a Pre-Tournament as it has been until last year.

Rules and Classes

The principle of a robot-sumo fight consists of two robots competing to push the opponent out of the dohyō. The arena is usually painted with a main color with a contrasting color used to paint a line in the edge (usually, black as the main color and white as the border line color).thumb|Competitors preparing the robots before a Mega Sumo fight at All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament 2018FUJISOFT also requires the usage of a standardized remote controller for the judge in Autonomous category in the All Japan Robot Sumo Tournament [jp] and in its qualifiers Overseas Tournaments, so the judge may control the start and the stop of the robots' movements. Though classes have size limits, robots are usually allowed to expand once the fight starts.

In this class, the dohyō should ideally be a 5 cm in height circular aluminum structure with a diameter of 154 cm (+/- 50 mm), including the border line, and covered by a black cold-rolled steel (SPCC) sheet located on top.

This class is usually divided in Mega Sumo Auto (Autonomous) and Mega Sumo RC (Radio-controlled).]]The dohyō should be a 2.5 cm in height circular wooden board with a diameter of 77 cm (including the white border line), covered by a formica laminate located on top. The arena is made of wood, and therefore the robots are not affected by the force of magnets.

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

Nano Sumo: up to 50 g, must fit in a 2.5 cm cube, wooden arena.

The Micro and Nano classes are less popular than the Mini and Mega Sumo, but they are held at some relevant events such as RoboGames, RobotChallenge in China, and Robochallenge in Romania.

There are also some robot-sumo events with humanoid robots.

Humanoid robot-sumo

Humanoid robot-sumo is similar to ROBO-ONE events.

Competitors are encouraged to build their own robots, respecting each competition class' and security rules. In Sumo LEGO, in particular, only Lego pieces must be used to build the robot, mainly using Mindstorms NXT or Mindstorms EV3 robotics kits. and Sumozade, both based in Turkey, which even sell complete Mega Sumo and Mini Sumo robot kits.

Mechanics

The Mechanics consists in the infrastructure that supports and accommodates all the components and systems of the sumobot, including motors, wheels, PCB's, sensors, among others.

A standard sumo robot is wheeled driven robot with a locomotion system. The locomotion system usually consists of driving motors with a coupling system to the wheels, which usually employs a reduction drive system to shift the output speed. Brushed DC motors have been the most employed ones, and side wedges, which are usually activated with actuators other than the driving motors.

thumb|Mega Sumo Galena, from ThundeRatz [<nowiki/>[[:pt:ThundeRatz|pt<nowiki>]</nowiki> (Poli-USP), is an example of robot with side blades.

In RC classes, the robots are remotely controlled by an operator. All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament usually require radio controllers,

Competitions adopt different competition formats, usually knockout bracket competitions, ranging from single elimination systems to tournaments with group stage or double elimination systems. Teams may register more than one robot per event, and confrontations between robots from the same team are possible. In 2024, 66 of the 114 slots for japanese competitors were reserved for high schooler's robots. and in Mongolia. Baltic States also organize relevant competitions, such as Robotex.

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. The FUJISOFT's "High Schooler's Tournament" and the "High School Championship" Regional Stage tournaments are also part of regional qualifiers for the All Japan Grand Final.

International representatives may qualify for the Grand Final through international qualifiers tournaments approved by FUJISOFT, in overseas countries such as Mexico, Mongolia and Brazil, among others. These tournaments form the "Overseas Tournaments" qualifiers (Japanese: 海外大会枠 kaigai taikai-waku, lit: overseas tournaments slots). The Overseas Tournaments are run by different organizations, so the tournament format varies. In some specific cases, qualification certificates are also issued to some teams as "National Representative" or "Country Representative", for countries with no teams yet qualified or without any official qualifier tournament.

Africa: DR Congo, Egypt and Tunisia.
Asia: China, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Thailand.
Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and the United States.
Europe: Estonia, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Spain and Turkey.

The Grand Final is held in December in Tokyo, Japan at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan,

The tournament also consists of Regional Stage tournaments and a Final tournament, with the Regional Stage tournament being usually held jointly with the All Japan Regional Stage tournaments in the same day, while the Final High Schooler's tournament is usually held separately and earlier, in a different venue. Since these teams are mostly students organizations/clubs or research groups, the rotation of members tend to be high, since every year new freshmen get into the school/university, and senior members tend to leave the group after graduation. These teams usually have a professor from the institute as an advisor, who may contribute for the robots development directly, or be just a representative for internal bureaucracy.

The robotics teams from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (Poli-USP), with their team named "ThundeRatz" [<nowiki/>pt], Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia, with their team named "Kimauánisso", and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), with their team named "Minervabots", are among the most prominent and successful robot-sumo teams in the country.thumb|Stonehenge, former Mega Sumo RC developed by ThundeRatz [<nowiki/>[[:pt:ThundeRatz|pt<nowiki>]</nowiki>. Though untypical worldwide, its design was heavily copied by rival teams in Brazil during its active years (2012-2020). As of the IRONCup 2025, it was still the biggest Sumo 3kg RC RoboCore champion and the leader of the History Ranking. ]]These competitions are also open to teams not directly linked with academic institutions, including independent teams of hobbyists, graduated engineers and professionals. These teams are often made up of former students from those academic institutions teams.

Furthermore, international participants, from countries such as Ecuador, France, Mexico, Paraguay and Poland, have already participated. RoboCore organizes and supports a number of robotics competitions in Brazil, including in its program Robot Combat, Line Follower, Robot Trekking and Robot-Sumo events, attracting mainly universitarian and technical education level teams. but does not exclude inactive robots from the ranking. Since the system is tied to a registered robot, then the ranking is compiled exclusively for each instance registered in the system (this means if a robot is registered with different labels for different tournaments, the ranking will be compiled for each label, as different robots). For robot-sumo, the RoboCore ranking is compiled for the major classes in Brazil: Sumo 3 kg Auto, 3 kg RC, Mini Auto, Mini RC, LEGO and LEGO Jr., but also for minor classes, such as the remote classes, popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other tournaments in Brazil

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.

From 2017 until 2021, Instituto Mauá also organized additional tournaments in São Paulo state in partnership with SESC, from Santo André in the Greater São Paulo, and with Bosch Brazil in Campinas - SP. These tournaments were also added as Overseas Tournament qualifiers for the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament.

China

China hosts the RobotChallenge. There is also a special class for Humanoid Sumo.

RobotChallenge is also a usual Overseas Tournament qualifier for the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament.

Mongolia

Mongolia hosts a number of robot-sumo events. The prominent ones are usual approved Overseas Tournaments qualifiers for the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament.

Robochallenge

Robochallenge was first organized in 2008, and initially called ROBOT FOTBAL, hosting a Robot Football competition. It currently organizes tournaments of Line Follower, Robot Football, Maze, Robot Combat and Robot-Sumo, among others. The competition is held at Politehnica of Bucharest.

As of 2024, the robot-sumo classes hosted by Robochallenge Romania are Mega Sumo, Mini Sumo, Micro Sumo, Nano Sumo. which was, until 2016, the largest open robotics competition in the world.

RoboGames

RoboGames is an international robot event contested annually in the USA. The events are divided in categories: Humanoids; Auton. Humanoid Challenges; Combat; Robot Soccer; Open; Jr League; Autonomous Autos; Art Bots; BEAM, and Sumo.

RoboGames is an also usual Overseas Tournament qualifier for the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament.

In 2018, Japanese robot-sumo has been the subject of a short video from Great Big Story named "The Freakishly Fast World of Robot Sumo" released on YouTube.

Since 2019, FUJISOFT has been live transmitting the Regional Stage and the Grand Final tournaments of All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament on a dedicated Youtube channel.

Notes

References

External links

Tournaments

All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament The first robot-sumo event and now considered as the "World Robot-Sumo Championship".
International RoboGames International tournament held in California, USA which was once the largest robotics open event in the world.
RoboCore Main robotics competitions organizer in Brazil. Hosts the Robocore Experience (RCX), the biggest competition in Latin America, among other tournaments.
RoboChallenge Robotics competition held in Bucharest, Romania.

Competitor Teams

ThundeRatz Robotics team from Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Miscellaneous

JSumo Turkish robotics store specializing in Robot-Sumo
RobotRoom Tutorial
Robot Tutorials for Beginners Tutorial