Robot teams learn about creation process at Hills Road Sixth Form College
Help was on hand for the teams competing in April's robotics competition, RoboCon 2018, at Hills Road Sixth Form College.
The technical day at the sixth-form college on Saturday (February 24) involved members of four teams which have already signed up.
They received help with their autonomous robots from Hills Road students and mentors on the day.
Leader of Hills Road robotics group, David Massey, one of the competition organisers, said: “The tech day was a great success with each team making progress towards their goals.”
He continued: “The rules of the much-anticipated competition were released at the launch event in November and the teams have been busy building their robots in preparation for the two-day competition.
“The teams will be required to demonstrate the skills of their robots within a bespoke-built arena, provided by fit-out and design company, COEL.
“The robots will have to pick up cubes and place them in designated areas of the arena.
“A robot that controls a cube will earn their team one point, two points if the robot puts a cube in the designated area and five points if the cube is placed in a bucket. The team with the most points wins.”
Hills Road student Samuel Clarke said: “The competition should be an amazing experience as it’s always great to see the varied and innovative approaches that other teams have used with the design and the strategies of their robots to best complete the required tasks.”
RoboCon 2018, which is sponsored by estate agency Cheffins, will feature 11 teams from schools across the region putting their robotics and engineering skills to the test on Saturday, April 14 and Sunday, April 15.
Teams of between four and eight members from the following schools are taking part in RoboCon 2018: Comberton Village College, Ely College, The Perse School, Collyer’s (Sussex), Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School (Hertfordshire), Hazelwick School (Crawley), Haydon School (Hillingdon), Longsands Academy (St Neots), St Peter’s School (Huntingdon), The John Warner School (Hertfordshire) and a team of students from Hills Road too.
Marian Galatanu, from the Haydon School, attended Saturday’s event and said: “The tech day has been a great opportunity to get advice from the Hills Road robotics team. I feel like we made huge progress with the robot.”
Team Systemetric is the robotics group of Hills Road students which meets regularly to create, programme and build a robot to enter an annual competition at Southampton University. Unfortunately, the competition has been cancelled this year and that is why the students decided to organise their own robotics competition for local schools.
The team of students have created a website for the event.