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Post by donburch on Aug 11, 2006 13:43:19 GMT 10
I went to the RoboCup Junior NSW competition yesterday. Great to see so many kids getting involved and having fun. Just wish I wasn't too old to enter  I will be taking my son and his friend to the Australian finals competition next month. If you're in Sydney I suggest you take a look ... Their website doesn't mention spectators, but there was no charge. Part of my motivation for thinking about starting a robotics club is to run similar competitions, as a way of providing challenges. |
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Post by donburch on Aug 11, 2006 23:01:18 GMT 10
If you're not familiar with RoboCup Junior, it is a robotics competition for Primary and Secondary students, with 3 competitions available. Firstly I'll say that I only saw a couple of robots that did not use the Lego RCX brick. Very appropriate for schools, as the hardware is all matched, allowing them to get results very quickly, and that builds enthusiasm. " Dance" is probably the easiest category, with lots of first-time competitors, particularly from Primary schools. Competitors can pre-program a dance routine into their bots. Additional points are awarded for bot decorating, and the competitors may interact with the bot during the dance. Plenty of opportunity for creativity ... so I was a little disappointed that most of the dances I saw appeared to be just random movements and spinning around. Also the bots all looked very small out in the middle of the dance floor ... giving me some ideas to shake up the dance competition. Pity I'm about 30 years too old to compete ;-) " Rescue" is basically line-following. One thing I noticed particularly was the way some bots jerked from side to side. Maybe this was lack of fine motor control, from only having one sensor (so having to make bigger sweeps), or just inexperienced programming. The highlight for me is the Soccer competition, probably because it is the most active, and requires most sophisticated programming. Each team fields 2 robots (usually a "srtiker" and a "goalie") and the objective is to kick a ball into the opposing goal. Not at all as easy as it sounds. First you have to find the ball. For this the bots need Infra-Red (IR) sensors, since the ball contains IR emitters. Having found the ball and got to it, you then have to aim in the direction of the opposing goal, and kick. I noticed that many of the teams had obviously learnt from last years Australian winner (from Queensland) with lots of similar designs including the reverse motor to roll the ball back to the bot, enabling the robot to 'dribble' the ball. A few of the bots just spun around in the same place, and many seemed to be wandering aimlesly. I wonder if this is due to a lack of practice games while developing the robots. I would certainly recommend each school who is competing in rescue or soccer to purchase (or make for soccer) a playing field, and practice on it well before the competition day. |
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Post by donburch on Aug 28, 2006 22:23:52 GMT 10
bump
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Post by donburch on Sept 16, 2006 14:28:03 GMT 10
Venue changed to the Scientia building (officially "G19 John Niland Scientia" on the UNSW map). Parking is free during the weekend - enter from Gate 11 off Botany Rd.
Popped in earlier with my son and friends, and the quality was certainly higher than the NSW competition.
Unfortunately someone (not wearing and official identification) stated that Adults are not allowed to view the Rescue competition, and after lunch my son and friends weren't interested to go back and watch any more, so we just came home.
No results yet (20 Sept) on the Robo Cup website
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Post by FSDF on Aug 14, 2008 17:50:51 GMT 10
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Post by SFSDF on Aug 14, 2008 17:52:14 GMT 10
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Post by SDFSDF on Aug 14, 2008 17:53:59 GMT 10
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Post by SDFSDF on Aug 14, 2008 17:55:30 GMT 10
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