The Tor team from Oradea will represent Romania at the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament 2025, taking place between 6 and 7 December, and is the only team from the country registered in the Mega Sumo, Radio Control (3 kilogrammes) category, coordinator Flaviu Birouas announced in a press release on Wednesday.

According to him, the Tor team represents the Robotics Club Oradea within the University of Oradea and is made up of Mihnea Gavris, the team leader, Raul Ticarat and Mahmoud Darbaj, fourth-year students in the English-language Robotics programme, Oana Gal, a graduate of the Advanced Mechatronic Systems master's programme, and Sebastian Gavruta, a PhD student in Industrial Engineering.

The activities of the Robotics Oradea club and the team are coordinated by Flaviu Birouas.

'Tor is the only team from Romania participating in the Mega Sumo, Radio Control (3 kg) event, an elite category that attracts advanced robots and experienced teams every year from Asia, Europe and Latin America,' Birouas said.

He mentioned that the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament is a long-standing competition in Japan, organised by the Japanese company Fujisoft. The first demonstrations took place in 1989 and the first edition was held in 1990. Since then the event has become a global benchmark in the field of sumo robots, recognised for its high standards and the remarkable technical level of the participants.

To prepare for Tokyo, the team from Oradea has worked intensively over the past month, holding training sessions mainly after classes and sometimes late into the evening.

Their robot, Afrodita, their most successful this year, has been tested and optimised several times, both mechanically and electronically, to meet the demanding requirements of the competition in Japan.

'It is a sumo robot, basically a cube measuring 20 by 20 centimetres, with a maximum weight of three kilogrammes and very expensive electronics. Each competitor will enter the competition with their own creations. It is a challenge to build a robot that performs better than those of the other teams. In the fighting ring, just like in sumo wrestling between athletes, the aim is to push the opponent out of the ring. Here, in the robot version, the ring is made of steel with a diameter of 1.5 metres. To achieve grip we use magnets. Most teams use magnets and often the force reaches hundreds of kilogrammes, keeping the robot on the ring. The event we are competing in involves a robot controlled by radio. A fight, a match, lasts very little, sometimes less than a second. It is a test of reflexes, speed and the robot's performance. A sumo match ends very quickly, in just a few seconds. When it lasts five to ten seconds it may even produce smoke. There will be at least one hundred approved robots from all over the world. This competition is somewhat the world final, where only the best make it. We hope to bring honour to our country,' Flaviu Birouas told AGERPRES on Wednesday.

After returning to the country the members of Robotics Club Oradea will focus on Robotics Championship International 2026, one of the most highly regarded events in the region, which will take place in Oradea between 8 and 9 May 2026.

In recent years the competition has attracted more and more international teams and has become a real meeting place for robotics communities from several countries.

The team from Oradea already has an impressive portfolio of international awards. This year the Tor team has participated in several international competitions and achieved remarkable results: First place at the Robotic Tournament Rybnik in Poland with the Afrodita robot, first and second place at Yokozuna Robot Yusho in Greece with the Afrodita and Jon Bot Jovi robots and second place at RoboComp Krakow in Poland with the Jon Bot Jovi robot. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Eugenia Pasca; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)