Scotch College

Robocup Junior 2002

While many Scotch students set off on camp, with cadet units and other trips at the end of Term 3, eight students from Years 7 & 8 ventured into the Melbourne Convention Centre with Ms Libby Moore, Head of IT, and Mrs Michele Linossier, Extension Studies Co-ordinator, eager to test the strength and dexterity of their programmed robots at Robocup Junior 2002.

Throughout the term the boys had built robots using lego and a range of sensors, later programming their creations to respond to light and touch. Scotch entered two teams in the soccer section of Robocup which requires pre-programmed, not remote control, robots to score a goal against the two robots from the opposing team.

Matches of approximately 10 minutes were played against all teams in their respective groups. Each team had a match off in between their scheduled playing times when frantic reprogramming and rebuilding of robots took place as students benefited from seeing a huge range of design and program styles in addition to developing strategies to improve their performance. At the end of the day the winning team from each group went on to the finals. The Scotch teams did very well achieving second and fourth in their respective groups. This is not a sectioned competition and so students range from Years 7 -12.

Robocup Junior 2002 ended a term of lunchtime activity for these keen students as they designed, built and programmed their robots from scratch. Trial and error was very much a part of the learning experience and many a time one had to scramble between the robots as they whizzed around the floor in the IT lab. Building on this initiative, Ms Moore's Year 7 class completed a cross curricula robotic project early in term 4.

Soccer is only one of the three major sections that comprise Robocup. Students may also enter the Search & Rescue section and the Dancing Robots competition, which has both secondary and primary divisions. Soccer is the most popular and the Australian winner then represents Australia at the International Competition the following year.

Congratulations to the Years 7 & 8 boys who made up the Scotch Hoops and Tarrat teams…Alex Wraith Smith, James Bell, Chris Baker, Andrew Wilson, Andrew Yuen, Tim Ritchie and Ronald Lam. Further information can be found on the official website: http://www.robocupjunior.org.au

Michele Linossier