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Ignited minds at work
One of the machines which took the obstacle course at the Robotics contest.
IT WAS an electric atmosphere at the Students Activities Centre in IIT campus on Monday, with students from 15 schools pitting their wits in the First Indian National Robotic Olympiad.
The task of the day was to build a robot which would complete an obstacle course and the stakes were high — a chance to represent the country at the International Robotics Olympiad to be held at Deajeon in South Korea from November 6 to 8.
Sixteen teams of three students each, all in the age group of 13 to 18, participated in the competition. The organisers, Edutech, who are also the distributors for Lego Educational Division products, said the competition was restricted to schools in Tamil Nadu owing to paucity of time. Besides, the registration cost of Rs. 35,000 inclusive of two robot-building kits meant there were fewer participants than normally found in such contests.
But by no means was the number of participants reflective of the quality and vigour displayed by the students. The students, essentially from standards VIII to XII, displayed not just exemplary teamwork and coordination but also came up with innovative designs that surprised the jury members from Mechanical Engineering Department of IIT-Madras.
The students prepared the basic circuit design on PCs using the specialised software provided with Mindstorm Team Challenge kit. The software enabled them to programme their robots and the circuit information was written on to the chip in the robot.
The teams blitzed through the design aspect in an hour or slightly more thanks to their practice over the last month. The stumbling block for most teams was the on-ground performance.
Students of the Mahendra Matriculation Higher Secondary School from Kaalipthi in Namakkal district developed an intriguing design — a robot resembling a human being with the motors running the limbs. Their only problem was the torso of the robot, which was much too heavy for the motors to move. The team members, V.S. Tamizhan, R. Ramakrishnan and M. Sattesh Kumar, however, took the result in their stride.
For the team from the D.A.V.Public School, `Robocop' proved a trifle heavy when a wheel gave way at the obstacle course. ``The Wheel...the wheel,'' A. Abhishek of standard X, `builder' of Robocop, screamed as the robot stopped just about two inches from the finish line. Robocop `programmer' J. Sharanya watched silently. ``Participation is most important,'' said the teacher accompanying the team.
The first team to successfully complete the obstacle course was the Vanavani Matriculation School. The team relied purely on programming and built a simple robot that used wheels rather than gears for its movement. The team comprising R. Vinay, V. Vijay and H. Narendran jumped up with clinched fists when the robot completed the obstacle course.
Even while Vanavani waited with bated breath for the awards ceremony, the final results took everyone by surprise. That included the team members of the Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan (Thirumalai Pillai Road), Anirudh R. Natarajan, Gopal Rao and Ashwin S. Ravichandran, who were preparing to leave the venue, when the winners were being announced. The robot built by the team cleared the finish line on the third attempt. But that was only because their invention incorporated touch and light sensors which failed due to unforeseen circumstances. The judges later on informed the audience the design by the team was most innovative as it incorporated maximum elements. The trio were in first place and will now match wits with international students in Korea.
The Vanavani Matriculation Higher Secondary had to contend with second spot while the SBOA Junior College and the St.Mary's Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School were joint third.
As the participants were leaving after a day that will be remembered more because of the fun rather than hard work, some of the senior members discussed the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's vision for a developed India by 2020 and the ignited minds which would make that dream a reality. There was ample evidence of ignited minds at work here.
By Karthik Subramanian
Photo: N. Sridharan
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Life
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