With the growth in technology, most students dream of advanced technologies, engineering and automation. Preparing students to develop these future technologies using robotics, IRC season 9 for state championship was organised in Emerald Heights International School during the weekend. Winners of the biggest robotics competition of South Asia were announced in the school premises on Monday.
The competition intended to capture the attention of young innovators by giving them problems and challenges that not only stretch their imagination but also are burning issues. This year the theme of the competition is ‘R-ME (Robots in Missions and Expeditions)’.
Based on the theme, the competition was organised on different difficulty levels for junior, middle and senior school students. Though the theme and rules for the competition were same for students, the level of automation was different. About 73 teams with 280 students participated in the competition from Madhya Pradesh and Maharasthra. Students from different schools had been preparing techniques of assembling and using components to make efficient robots for a couple of months prior to the competitions.
Maximum place allotted for a robot was 9 feet by 9 feet for competitors of all the levels. Scoring of the competition was done based on tasks completed by the robot in the stimulated time with efficiency. The highest scores were awarded top three positions. Top three teams from each level will be competing in the national robotic competition on 15 December in Delhi.
Junior Level competition
Assembling the components, teams in junior level had to make a robot that could function and finish the task allotted in six minutes. Following the theme, participants had to prepare robots for fuel station, radar monitoring and landing flights. These were semi-automatic robots controlled by remote.
In this competition, Robo champs of GD Goenka Public School (GDGPS) were declared first place winners. Second place was bagged by Robo Rockers from GDGPS. Robo Terminators from The Emerald Heights International School (EHIS) won third position. Further, the winners of national competition will be going for international competition along with a sponsered trip by organisers.
Middle Level meet
Middle level students were assigned the task of making robotics for Indian Air Force. Students had to prepare three robots for action in this level. The first robot was known as seeker, who had to detect mines. Second robot was signal head, who had to pass the signal for action after detection to the third robot. The third robot known as disposer, which had to dispose of the mine in a specified area.
This level participants had to prepare one automatic robot and two remote controlled robots for the competition. Savage Scanvengers team of EHIS bagged first position in this level. Second position was awarded to I Bots of EHIS. The third prize position was also bagged by Robo Champs from EHIS as well.
Senior level clash
Senior level participants were required to make fully automatic robots using programming. Students had to work using similar components for Indian Navy robotics. Participants had to prepare two robots namely Mark and Steel Boy, which would dispose a bomb. The first robot Mark had to detect the bomb (a set object) using laser light and signal Steel Boy to dispose the bomb.
Steel boy would move to the object, pick it up and further drop it to dispose at a certain point. Bomb Squad of Choithram School, Manik Bagh Road bagged first position in this level. Second place was awarded to Circuit Breakers of MES High School and Junior College, Mehkar, Maharasthra. RQ9_Predator B team of Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Bhopal were awarded third place based on their score.