igus supports the Robo TV team from Overath
This year, motion plastics specialist igus supported a school team from Overath for the first time in their participation in the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) in Costa Rica. In the competition a robot must be made from Lego blocks and programmed. Then a defined task must be fulfilled using this robot. As newcomers in their age group, the team reached the 21st place and was able to raise its success level from last year.
Teams from 53 nations got together in Costa Rica from 10 to 12 November to attend this year’s World Robot Olympiad (WRO). The competition involves the fulfilling of a task within a defined timeframe with a self-made Lego robot and specially programmed software. This year, all the tasks of the competition deal with the topic of “Renewable Energy”. For Germany in the starting line-up: the Robo TV team from Overath-based Paul-Klee-Gymnasium, supported by the motion plastics specialist igus. The three-man team consisting of Lukas Zink, Christian Weyers and Alexander Albers was able to successfully qualify for the international Olympiad in the regional and also in the German preliminary round.
The team already participated successfully in the World Robot Olympiad in India last year, then still in the junior class of 13 to 15-year-olds. This year Robo TV competed in the senior class due to the age of the three youngsters. “This means that we now have to accomplish a much more complex task,” said Alexander Albers of the Robo TV team in advance. “It is important to build a ‘wind turbine’ from two different Lego frames and two plastic components. For this purpose, diverse criteria such as the position and colour of the components and frames must be taken into account.” The robot was completely rebuilt for this year’s Olympiad. That took around 200 hours of work on the hardware in addition to programming time. Upon arrival in Costa Rica, the students had to completely reassemble the robot without any aids. This ensured that the robot was constructed by the students themselves. Subsequently, the software was adapted to the local conditions, such as the lighting.
