By Mohammad Suhail Abbasi
Dehradun, 9 Feb: After the athletics competition in the National Games, the format of the medal ceremony seems to have changed. A robot representing games mascot Mouli brought the medals for the athletes, which were presented by the guests to the winners. In the second competition, the movement of a rover became the centre of attraction. In the discus throw, the discus was retrieved by this rover.
The occasion was the medal ceremony of the athletics event in the National Games at the Maharana Pratap Sports College, where players and a large number of spectators were present. Everyone was expecting that the medal ceremony to be held shortly would be held traditionally. But in a few moments, the entire style of the medal ceremony changed. The Mouli robot responded to the commands of the remote controller and reached the winners with medals in a tray. The special guests picked up the medals and put them around the necks of the winners.
Currently, there are more than 25 events to be held in athletics. According to Director, Sports, Prashant Arya, Mouli robots will be used during the medal ceremony in most of the athletics events.
The drone team of the Uttarakhand Police has worked in collaboration with a private firm, Dtown Robotic, on the idea of the Mouli robot. Vipin Kumar, Deepankar Bisht, Prashant Chandra, Deepak Bisht, Abhishek Kumar, Prajwal Rawat of the drone team worked on this project for about one and a half months. While the Mouli robot worked in the medal ceremony, another robot assisted during the discus event.
Chief Minister Dhami has said that, apart from the excellent performance of the players in the 38th National Games, some innovative initiatives are also visible to the whole country. “Our effort is to work for sports development by taking full advantage of the new technology,” he asserted.
