RoboCup Competition - 3rd Place!

On Sunday 14 August the RoboCup Competition was held at Selwyn House School. Our team, 'Lightning Squad', entered and this was the first time a Springston team had taken part in a robotics competition. The team of Oliver, Freddie, Jasmine and Jake spent all day at the competition, participating only in the Rescue section. There was also a Dance section, and only one entry in the Soccer section.

There were 8 teams in our Junior Rescue (primary/intermediate school) Competition, and each team took part in four 2 minute rounds, where they tried to programme their robot to get through a course by following a line and changing direction on the green squares. They needed to get to the green 'chemical spill' area at the end, and push a 'victim' (tin can) out of the spill area. Marks were awarded for each tile successfully completed, and turns correctly made following the green squares. You could make multiple restarts within your 2 minute round. The scores from a team's best 3 rounds were counted.

Lighting conditions were extremely variable, and this made it difficult for every team to callibrate the sensors in their robot accurately. Nevertheless, the Lightning Squad rose to the occasion, firstly working hard on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to alter their programming for a rule we had not picked up on, and then not giving up after a low score in the first round. After a downpour of hail at lunchtime, the competition was almost reduced to just 3 rounds, so we were lucky to have the 4th round reinstated because we got a better score in that and could drop off our first round score.

The team was delighted to finish in third place on their first effort! Thanks to the parents who supported the team during extra practices throughout the holidays, and who came along to support them on Sunday. We would like to enter more teams next year if we are lucky enough to have more robots to work with. Our next robotics challenge will be the First Lego League Competition starting in September.

You can see our other videos from the Junior Rescue at SpringstonTube.