A total of six teams from Ghana have taken part in this year's robotics festival and competition designed to promote and support Science, Engineering, Technology and Math (STEM ).
The six are made up of; MomaGolf from Mount Olivet Methodist Academy, EddyGolf, MikoGolf and AgyengoGolf from Prempeh College and private groups; CMOS and PSIBOT.
MomaGolf and CMOS represented Ghana in the junior GolfBowl game while all Prempeh College teams took part in the Senior Game. Meanwhile, PSIBOT was engaged in the senior Unknown Mission Challenge (UMC).
Robofest World Championship is Lawrence Technological University’s international autonomous robotics program for students in 4th grade through college.
The participating teams are tasked to design, construct, and program their robots to act independently and compete for trophies in a variety of competitions in Michigan, USA every year.
Due to the outbreak of Coronavirus, this year's event was virtually held to facilitate the practice of social distancing protocols.
All sorts of robotics kits are allowed in the construction of robots and they can be programmed with any programming language.
Robofest programs are geared towards supporting Computer Science for All.
Teams compete in the junior (grades 5-8), senior (grades 9-12), and college divisions.
For RoboParade, Junior includes 4th grade. Student teams, composed of up to five members each, can participate in a variety of events in 2020:
Golfbowl Game Synopsis
1. Put 5 golf balls into a Hole-slot with a wood piece attached to the robot. Alternative partial points will be given if bottles on the floor are knocked (bowled) over or moved. Penalty points are given if the bottle on the table is knocked over or moved.
2. For a game, 2 minutes are allowed.
3. White balls (balls 1, 3, 4) cannot be moved before putting. Orange balls (balls 2 & 5) may be moved by the robot before putting.
4. One full-reset of the playing field is allowed.
5. All the tasks must be done autonomously without any external help
6. UTF (Unknown Task and Factors) will unveil the following just before the 30-minute work-time.
• The starting location and orientation of the robot
• The locations of balls
• How to end the game.
7. Each team will have a 30 minute work time after the UFT’s have been unveiled and then a 2-minute scoring first Round.
8. Each team will have a 30 minute work time after the UFT’s have been unveiled and then a 2-minute scoring second Round.
Location Head judges and location judges at the various locations of participating teams will be responsible for adjudication on the grounds. They will be working with the Robofest officials at LTU via a zoom webinar throughout the entire duration of the competition.
Schedule of events
The award ceremony begins at 11:30 am GMT on 17th October 2020.
Click on the Zoom webinar registration link on the Robofest website to register directly as an attendee and watch the action live or visit the Robofest Official Facebook page to join the live stream.
Background
The Robofest World Championship is organized by Lawrence Technological University and started in1999.
The competition is geared at offering students the opportunity to master principles of STEM as well as Computer Science (CS).
All these while helping them build their communication, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving skills while designing, constructing, and programming robots.
Robofest’s mission includes;
(1) to generate excitement and interest among young people for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Art, and Computer Science;
(2) to develop problem-solving skills as well as creative thinking, teamwork and communication skills; and
(3) to prepare them to excel in higher education and technological careers. Robofest is a festival of competitions and events with autonomous robots that encourages students to have fun while learning principles of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and Computer Science.
Since 1999, over 28,000 students have competed in the annual contest.
They are from 15 United States teams, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, England, France, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Macau, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, and UAE.
A team of 9 Ghanaian girls won the senior category in the 2019 edition of the competition
Team Acrobat built a robot that arranges boxes according to a binary number they were given during the competition.
They claimed the top spot over 25 other teams from several countries such as well as the host team from the United States.
This year, the teams from Ghana will be hoping to defend their title as Senior Game champions.
The winners will be announced on 17th October 2020 at 11:30 GMT.