Pretoria school robotics team to compete in Texas
Creepy Crawlies will contest over 192 teams from around the world and more than 45 000 visitors are expected to attend the 5-day event from April 19-23.
The Deutsche Internationale Schule Pretoria (DSP) Creepy Crawlies team will represent South Africa in the First Tech Challenge (FTC) world championships and robotic competition (FRC) in Houston, Texas in April.
The crawlies, a team of robotics enthusiasts, aim to bring the glory home.
The team will contest over 192 teams from around the world and more than 45 000 visitors are expected to attend the five-day event from April 19-23.
The team developed a programmed robot with a lifting arm and grabber that can be controlled remotely.
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Crawlies mentor Dalena Beyers said the team won regional and national competitions to qualify for this event.
“This team of six DSP robotics enthusiasts competed in the FTC regional competition on January 28 at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre.
“It won the Think Award for its innovative problem-solving and collaborative effort to overcome the engineering problems.
“Their perseverance and teamwork earned them second place for the Inspire Award at the FTC national championships on February 25 at the Sci-Bono sciences centre in Johannesburg, qualifying them for the FTC world festival championships in Houston,” she said.
The team consists of Theo Feucht and Younes Haddouti (Grade 12), Captain Udo Aschernborn (Grade 11), Christiaan Beyers and Andreas Rust (Grade 9), Luka Schlüter (Grade 8) and coach Dr Karin Kabutz.
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Beyers said the team will also present its engineering notebook that describes its thought and design processes that won the Think Award twice this season.
“The team is working very hard to have the robot optimised and ready for the trip,” she added.
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