Best robot design comes from Toti
The tournament is split into four categories - core values, technical design of the robot created, project presentation and robot game play.
Members of the Kingsway Robotic Club won the trophy for the best robot design and came fourth overall at the KZN Robot Design 2014 Championships at the KZN Science Centre in Glenwood on Saturday, 1 November.
The SAP Kings team of Yatra Roopnarian (grade 8), Yuvershen Moodley (grade 8), Ndumiso Radebe (grade 10), Pride Khumalo (grade 9), Rishen Archary (grade 8) and Luyanda Hlela (grade 9) led by maths and IT teacher, Reg Govender made a robot out of Lego that could be programmed to complete a number of missions on a 1.143m x 2.382m mat.
The First Lego League is an international programme for pupils aged between 10 and 16-years-old. It combines a hands-on interactive robotics programme and a research presentation with a sports-like atmosphere.
“The tournament is split into four categories – core values, technical design of the robot created, project presentation and robot game play,” said Reg.
“Our robot was based on the concept of a rhino, which probably raised our chances as rhino conservation is a very topical subject at present.”
The team is sponsored by software giant, SAP.
Included on their robot was a light sensor, four motors, an EV3 programmable intelligent brick and touch sensor to help them complete the tasks in two-and-a-half minutes.
The biggest challenge, according to the team, was the search engine. It took them about two weeks to finalise the concept and build their robot.
“My team did very well,” said Reg. “We are waiting for next year because our goal is to finish in the top three teams overall and go to nationals.”
The team was also interviewed by SABC 1 after the competition and the programme will be aired sometime in the next month.
