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According to Birins, this was Latvia's first year in the "Robogames" competition, also known as the "Robot Olympics", which sees participation from 37 countries worldwide, writes LETA.

Between April 23 and 25, more than 500 robots faced off in 53 different disciplines. The robots played bowling, football, and hockey, took part in tests of dexterity, speed, power and orientation, as well as in kung-fu, sumo and paintball battles. More romantically inclined robots also painted and played musical instruments. The most useful discipline for the audience was perhaps the robotic barman competition, but the most adrenaline-stimulating event was the robot wars "almost without rules", which took place in a special ring behind a reinforced glass screen, indicated Birins.

Around 700 engineers from all over the world traveled to San Fransisco along with the robots. The honor of Latvia was defended at the competition by four robots built by Maris Abele from the Riga Technical University and Eriks Zaharans from the University of Latvia.

Abele's robot "Tacka" won silver in the 3 kilogram robot sumo event, while another Latvian robot came fourth in the same event, said Birins.

The representatives of Latvia and Lithuania dominated the event, which featured the largest autonomous (not remote controlled) sumo robots - the two Baltic countries took the first four places, with first and third places both going to reigning European champion Vitalij Rodnov, of Lithuania.