Published on: 2026-10-16
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
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Six hours, 11 teams, and robots that were in no hurry to obey — the sixth engineering and robotics hackathon “REcathon: Ariadne’s Code” took place at the Polytechnic Tower.
The event was organized by the Higher School of Automation and Robotics of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transport at SPbPU in collaboration with the robotics association “PoliRoboTech” and PROF. IMMiT, with support from the companies “Altetech” and DHX (Droneshub), the Scientific and Educational Center for Information Technology and Business Analysis “Gazprom Neft”, the Association “Digital Technologies in Industry” and other partners. Specialists from the Industry Competence Center for Robotics of the Association “Digital Technologies in Industry” were also involved in task preparation, technical support for participants, and result evaluation.
This year, 11 teams participated in the hackathon: eight of them tackled the main track task, and three were working on a challenging assignment from Gazprom Neft.
Students were greeted by representatives of the organizers: Deputy Director of IMMiT for Educational Activities Pavel Kovalyov, Director of the Higher School of Automation and Robotics Olga Matsko, Head of the Digital Engineering Directorate of Gazprom Neft Kirill Vasiliev, and Deputy Director of DHX (Droneshub) Natalia Gurduza.
The main track was named “Ariadne’s Code” — inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Theseus, who managed to escape the labyrinth thanks to Ariadne’s thread. Here, the role of Theseus was given to courier robots: they had to independently find their way through obstacles and deliver a canister with an oil sample to the mobile laboratory.
The robots could move along the marked track or cut across free areas of the polygon, risking collision with fences and bumps.
In the advanced track from Gazprom Neft, teams tackled the task of autonomous navigation in a northern oil field environment. The robots were equipped with only a camera, so classical SLAM was unavailable, and the uniform objects complicated orientation. Participants needed to find another approach — using machine vision systems. For the track’s assignment, the industrial partner DHX (Droneshub) provided DH: CONTACT robotic platforms, which can be used both for training engineers and for solving tasks in commercial projects at enterprises.
For six hours, the teams worked with real industrial equipment: they studied it, tried, made mistakes, repaired — and each found their own way. Some set the “girl in red” at the finish line as a reference point and 3D printed a mount for an additional camera. Others taught the robot to understand depth from the camera image. Some solutions were more effective, others more creative. The robots knocked down obstacles and bumped into walls, yet still managed to reach the finish line.
Winners and prize-winners of the main track:
- 1st place — the “Rusty Bolts” team, 1st year of VShAiR: Gordey Shamrin, Dmitry Parakhin, Darina Pshennichnikova, Grigory Kobelkov;
- 2nd place — team “Slopmasters”, 4th year VSHAiR: Georgy Repman, Rostislav Bogdanov, Anton Izyumov, Elizaveta Fadeeva, Dmitry Belov;
- 3rd place — the team “Team”: second-year student of VSHaIR Maria Butenko, third-year students Artyom Gorokhov, Mikhail Mishuk, and Dmitry Gorbenko.
Winner of the complex track of Gazprom Neft:
- Team Error404: Robots Not Found, 1st year Master’s students: Egor Meshkov, Vladimir Yulik, Igor Bukhtiyarov (all — VSHAR), Sofya Sokolova (PISH CI), and Zakhar Vcherashniy (IBSiB).
The prize for the winners of the advanced track was a genuine robotic platform DH: CONTACT, provided by DHX (Droneshub) — the Error404 team departed straight from the finals on it.
Representatives of Gazprom Neft presented gifts to the Yobot team, which included fourth-year students of VSHaIR Victoria Saikinova, Ekaterina Kolyupanova, Alexander Faleev, Nikolay Pinchuk, and Irina Opryshko.
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