RoboCup success

Over Term 2 and 3 students in Robotics Club have been preparing to compete in Robocup Junior competitions.

On Saturday 27 July three Dominic College teams competed in the Hobart Regional. DC Dominators came 3rd in Primary Rescue. ‘Z’ which the is the team name for Zoelle Lin achieved 1st in Secondary Rescue. DC United, a group of 3 students competing in robot soccer were the 1st place getters because they were the only team to register! These excellent results motivated our teams to work even harder as they prepared for the Tas State Championship held on Saturday 24 August at UTAS Sandy Bay Campus.

DC Dominators (Leo Newman, Kyan Cubit, Samuel Anis and Sebastian Bush) and ‘Z’ (Zoelle Lin and Xin Chan) competed in five rounds of Rescue. The scenario of the competition is that a terrible earthquake has hit the city causing a chemical storage unit to rupture spilling thousands of litres of toxic chemicals. A person is trapped in a sinking rescue capsule in the spill. Rescue crews are having trouble entering the city and rescue from the air is impossible due to noxious gases. The best form of rescue is an autonomous robot that can navigate to the scene, rescue the Victim and exit the chemical spill. To simulate the scenario, robots follow a course on vinyl tiles. The chemical spill is a green tile and the victim is a coke can covered in silver foil. DC Dominators and ‘Z’ successfully rescued the victim and managed many obstacles along the way.

Both teams placed in the finals where they navigated 3 different courses of varying difficulty from speed to a technical challenge. At the end of the competition DC Dominators were placed 1st in Primary Rescue and ‘Z’ placed 2nd in Secondary Rescue. ‘Z’ was also awarded the ‘Best in Class’ award, sponsored by UTAS, for their excellent robot design and smooth programming.

DC United (Matthew Rime, Abel Vellara Sony and Ethan Lane) were excited to have some competition this time with 4 teams registered for the State Finals. They competed in a number of rounds of Soccer and were thrilled to be awarded 3rd place which is a great achievement considering the other teams were all much older high school students. The judges commented that it was the closest competition they had seen and required extra time in the finals for the play offs to eventually declare placings.

All teams are now hoping to compete at the Robocup Junior National Championships in Melbourne from 11-13 October 2019. They are already busy thinking about what improvements they can make to their robots and programs ready for the Nationals! Thanks to Mr Willem Logan, Br Barry Parker and James Lane MacDonald (Year 10) who have been mentoring our students.

Special thanks to all the parents who support the students and especially Linda Lane who comes in every week to help keep our Lego in order!

Mrs Selina Kinne - Head of Applied Studies 7-10