The KUDOS Defense Team, a robotics club at Kookmin University, competed in the “2026 Chief of Staff of the Army Cup Defense Robotics Competition,” held over two days from Saturday, September 5, to Sunday, September 6, in the Mannindang area of Nam-gu, Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, and achieved the remarkable feat of winning the “Chief of Staff of the Army Award”—the Grand Prize, which corresponds to second place.
 
Hosted by the Republic of Korea Army and organized by the Korea Institute of Robot Convergence, this competition was designed to discover robot technologies and creative ideas applicable to the defense sector, and was sponsored by Hanwha Aerospace and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. A total of six teams advanced to the finals to compete: “Dolbat” from Konkuk University, “ROBIT” from Kwangwoon University, “KUDOS” from Kookmin University, “Platot” from Seoul National University of Science and Technology, “VANGUARD” from Chungnam National University, and “Mars” from Korea University of Technology and Education.
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The KUDOS defense team from Kookmin University consisted of six students: Lee Yoon-jae, Park Seung-woo, Lee Hyo-jae, Choi Dong-ho, Jeong Hyung-jin, and Kwak Hyun-young. KUDOS developed a defense robot capable of navigating rough terrain to carry out assigned missions; utilizing autonomous driving based on object detection technology and robotic arm control technology based on robotics mechanics, the team successfully performed the task of recognizing and grasping supply boxes.
 
In particular, during the actual competition, the team demonstrated a high level of system reliability across various rough terrain sections and throughout the mission execution process, earning a score of nearly 900 out of 1,000. Based on this performance, the team ranked second among the six teams that advanced to the finals and received the top prize, the “Army Chief of Staff Award.” This achievement is particularly significant as it demonstrates the successful integration of multiple technologies—including the mobile robot’s off-road performance, object detection, autonomous navigation, and kinematics-based robotic arm control—into a single system.
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During their preparation for the competition, the KUDOS Defense Team continuously improved the stability of the robot platform for off-road navigation, applied object detection and autonomous driving algorithms to real-world environments, and developed the robotic arm’s kinematics and control technologies to ensure stable grasping of supply boxes, thereby enhancing the robot system’s overall sophistication.
 
Under the guidance of Professor Cho Baek-Kyu of Kookmin University, KUDOS’s faculty advisor, the students prepared for this competition by personally developing everything from the robot’s design and fabrication to its control, autonomous driving, and mission execution systems.