Boys or girls? Elementary school or secondary school? From big cities or small towns? "Every year we invent new tasks for robots from the LEGO Mindstorms kit, which is a popular tool in robotics clubs and classes in schools across the Czech Republic. Three-person teams of pupils and students can then enter the spring or autumn part of our Robo Competition in two age categories," says Martin Hlinovský from the Department of Control Engineering at FEL CTU, who has been the main organiser of the competition for 15 years. He adds: "We therefore invite you next week to the competition of teams from the 2nd grade of primary schools and the corresponding years of multi-year grammar schools. This year 138 robots will compete in three independent rounds and the competition task for them is called Ping-Pong. We're very curious to see how they do!"
The Ping-pong competition task
This year, pupils from the 2nd grade of primary schools or multi-year grammar schools have to assemble and program the robot so that within a time limit of 90 seconds, it can independently and without any other help (i.e. without controlling the robot by voice, through Bluetooth or other communication channels) move and possibly sort as many colored ping pong balls placed on the competition area into predefined storage areas (warehouses). The competition is organized as a mutual match between two robots on a symmetrically divided game plan, with the number of points scored deciding the winner.
Three rounds of competition next week, superfinals in June
Three separate competition rounds of this year's Robocompetition for elementary schools will be held in the Zenger Auditorium of the faculty building on Karlovo náměstí 13. During the competition rounds, the auditorium will also be open to the public between 11.00-15.00 on the following days:
- wednesday 26. 4. 2023 (42 teams enrolled with their robots),
- thursday 27. 4. 2023 (46 robots),
- friday 28. 2. 2023 (50 robots).
This year's highlight will be the superfinal at the Maker Faire Prague festival of creators and innovators, which will take place on the weekend of 10 and 11 June 2023 at the Prague Exhibition Centre. The top 4 teams from each individual round of the Robo Competition will advance to the superfinals next week - so visitors will see a showcase of the 12 best robots on the "big stage" at the end of the festival.
The exact timetable of the Robocompetition 2023 for elementary schools, competing teams, task description and other details can be found on the Robocompetition website or Facebook.
