The International Division of Weige High School in Taichung made robotics a elective course last year to encourage students to develop problem-solving skills. This year it entered the national competition as a team for the first time and won the right to represent Taiwan in the junior high category. In November the team will head to India to compete in the World Robot Olympiad (WRO).
Considering that a robotics course, beyond programming, can spark students' problem-solving abilities, the International Division set up a robotics classroom last year and made robotics a elective course. It even hired Teacher Turtle, coach of the national team for the World Robot Olympiad, to teach it.
Teacher Turtle said that the World Robot Olympiad national final is currently the largest robotics competition in Taiwan, and the competition is fierce. He encouraged students to enter, and Xie, Dai, and Cai, who had just moved up to 10th grade, formed a team and advanced from the inter-school cup and the central region qualifier all the way to the national final. In their first time competing, the three stood out from 40 opposing teams and earned the right to represent Taiwan in the junior high category at the world final.
Teacher Turtle said that within a 1.5-hour match, students must design a robot that, in an area with many colors, picks up blocks of the matching color, places them in the area of the same color, and returns to the finish. Everything from programming to assembling parts is done by the students themselves.
Teacher Turtle said that because the robot must detect and read the color positions and lighting on site in order to bring back blocks of the right color, students must be able to adapt and revise their programs on the spot. Competing on both accuracy and speed, this is a major test.
Teacher Turtle said that the robot the three designed not only picked up the correct-colored blocks accurately and scored full marks, but finished the task only seconds apart from another team that also scored full marks. In the end they took 2nd place, and both teams earned the right to represent Taiwan in the junior high category at the world final.
Team captain Xie said he originally chose the course just because he was interested in robot design. He never expected that, besides learning programming languages, the course would also use math, logical thinking, and even the physics of light. With such a varied course, getting to compete abroad is a big bonus, and he hopes to exchange ideas with more robotics enthusiasts.