Waterford Today

Teams from Hong Kong, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan, as well as the United States, were crowned champions in the 2022 Robofest Online World Championship Saturday, May 21.

While many qualifying and world championship competitions were able to be held in person for Robofest 2022, judging for the World Championships, and the award ceremony itself, was held online due to continuing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and international travel restrictions.

Robofest was created in 1999 by Dr. C.J. Chung, Professor of Computer Science at Lawrence Technological University. In Robofest, teams in the Junior (grades 5-8) and Senior (grades 9-12) Divisions compete to design, build, and program robots to accomplish a variety of tasks.

Dr. Christopher Cartwright, Robofest Director and Associate Professor of Mathematics at Lawrence Tech noted that, “Unlike other robot competitions, Robofest features low cost and few barriers to entry — a basic robot kit can be purchased for $400, the entry fee is just $75, and teams can compete online if they can’t travel. Also, Robofest robots are completely autonomous, controlled only by software just like robots used in real-world applications, from factories to satellites.”

This year’s competitions were:

• RoboArts, where students create robots that perform tasks in the visual or performing arts;
• RoboMed, where students create robots that perform tasks related to the life sciences, the only Robofest competition with a college division;
• RoboParade, in which students design robots to “march” in a colorful parade;
• BottleSumo, in which robots compete to push bottles off tables in the shortest time;
• Unknown Mission Challenge, in which students aren’t told the task their robot will have to accomplish until competition day;
• Exhibition, in which students themselves create the task a robot must accomplish, and build a robot to accomplish it;
• and the Game competition, Robofest’s most popular feature.

This year’s Game was called OceanBots, in which robots had to rescue “turtles” (blue blocks) and move them to a designated area, while moving “trash” (red blocks) to a different area. The game also includes tasks and factors that aren’t disclosed until competition day, meaning students must be creative and flexible in their robot programming.

Overall Winners of 2022 Robofest Online World Championship events were as follows:

• RoboParade: Team Magic Tree of Techabrick, Taipei, Taiwan
• Junior RoboArts: Team Tai Po Old Market G3 of the Tai Po Old Market Public School, Hong Kong
• Senior RoboArts: SRLE Team E of Santa Rosa de Lima English Secondary School, Macau
• Junior Unknown Mission Challenge: Team Chingshin C of the Chingshin Academy, Taipei, Taiwan
• Senior Unknown Mission Challenge: Chang Yi Senior High School, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
• College RoboMed, EE Team, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• Senior RoboMed: Team VERUM, Preparatoria #3 UAEH, Pachuca, Mexico
• Junior Exhibition: Team Tai Po Old Market G2, Tai Po Old Market Public School, Hong Kong
• Senior Exhibition: Team Cornhole Rail Gun, SMART Labs, Rochester, Mich.
• Junior BottleSumo Time Trial: Team Leo, Cranbrook Schools, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
• Senior Unlimited BottleSumo Time Trial: Team RIHK BSC_A, Robot Institute of Hong Kong
• Senior Classic BottleSumo Time Trial: Team Arabots of Arabots Robotics, Toluca, Mexico
• Junior Game: Team Absolutely Famished Raccoons, SMART Labs, Rochester, Mich.
• Senior Game: Team LH, Po Leung Kuk Tang Yuk Tien College, Hong Kong

In all, 190 teams comprised of 560 students from 12 countries participated in the 2022 Robofest Online World Championship events.

Original source can be found here.