Close to 60 alien looking creatures walked at Velammal School recently. But it was a robot with giant wheels that stole the hearts of the audience. Guiding the robots through their maze were students who made them to compete for one of the most prestigious competitions in the world.
The Indian Robot Olympiad in association with World Robot Olympiad(WRO) Committee held the preliminary rounds of the competition at The Velammal International School. Techtronics Education India limited, the official distributor for LEGO in India organised it for the first time in Chennai. Various schools including the Velammal Group of Schools, Pon Vidyashram Group, D.A.V. Public School, Akshayah, Gateway and MCC H.S.S. participated. The event was witnessed by Kayoko Furukawa, Consul, Culture, Information and Development Affairs, Consulate of Japan, Chennai.
This year's theme was “Robots- Improving life”. The students were expected to construct a robot to improve the life of human beings and programme it to perform various tasks within the specific time frame. The competition was held in three categories — Elementary, Junior High and Senior.
The team comprising Sai Kiriti, Jagadish, and Praveen Raj, VII, DAV Public School, Velachery bagged the first place. They managed to get their robot to complete its task in 61 seconds.
JAGDEESH KUMAR, VII, SAI KIRITI, VII, PRAVEEN RAJ, VII, DAV Public School, Velachery:
A robot which can cross the maze and collect three balls in the centre of the maze and then walk to the end was the task given to us. We had to make sure it came out without dropping the balls. Hard work, commitment, understanding logic and above all, the flair for Robotics helped us achieve what we did. We attended the competition in Delhi and secured the fourth place in the National Level and we are waiting eagerly to head to Abu Dhabi for the International competition.
