A record number of teams—153—registered for this year’s spring round of the Robosoutěž competition. In the end, 130 of them competed in the Zenger Auditorium. According to Dr. Martin Hlinovský, the competition’s main organizer, this is significantly more than in previous years. On Wednesday, the team Toto není dobré, consisting of Tomas Kolář and Ladislav Vacek from Zábřeh High School, won gold. On Thursday, the team T.N.T., consisting of Antonín Voříšek, Roman Verbiy, and Vojtěch Červinka from the First Czech High School in Karlovy Vary, took first place. On Friday, the Gyrořízci team—composed of Vít Dubský, Jakub Horák, and Štěpán Pukert from the Písnická High School in Prague 4—won. Interestingly, the Gyrořízci team was the only one to repeatedly achieve the maximum score of 280 points.
What is this year’s challenge? The goal for each team is to build and program a robot so that, within 90 seconds, it can independently move as many pieces as possible into the color-coded squares in the corners of the playing field. In addition, the robots can attempt to assemble a 4x4 square using parts of the same color. This square must be placed within a square of the same color marked on the playing field—if they succeed, the teams will earn extra points.
Dr. Hlinovský said the atmosphere was fantastic. “I expected the youngest participants to build various ‘bulldozers’ and ‘combine harvesters.’ But most teams are trying to build squares right away, which is amazing. Even the younger kids are approaching it strategically,” emphasized Dr. Hlinovský, who works at the Department of Control Engineering at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, CTU.
“The kids are doing well; the task really turned out great. The children are doing better because this year’s task is highly scalable. It allows teams to participate and earn points, whether they’re beginners or advanced teams that have participated in Robosoutěž several times,” said Ing. David Pařil, another member of the organizing team. He identified devising a strategy as the most difficult part for participants. “The rules are set, and the scoring is described in the text. It’s really about figuring out how to earn the maximum possible number of points—and then building a robot that can achieve them,” summarized Ing. Pařil.
And how long does it take to build and program a robot for the Robosoutěž? “It varies. We have teams here that work on the robots only on certain days during class. But there are also kids who devote all their free time to it and, from the moment the current Robosoutěž challenge is announced, spend every afternoon with the robot,” summarized Ing. Pařil.
The top teams will now prepare for the grand May finale during the Maker Faire Prague festival. The competition kicks off on May 10 at noon in Křižík Pavilion E at the Prague Exhibition Grounds in Holešovice. Detailed information about the program is available here.
The Robosoutěž for elementary school students is traditionally the spring stage of Robosoutěž. The fall stage is for high school student teams.
The competition is held under the auspices of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague; the general partner is BTL Medical Development a.s., and the event is also supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.
Translated with DeepL.com