By YASEMIN TALAT
STUDENTS from St Augustine’s Primary School got in touch with their robotic side last week when they competed in the Robocup Junior State Championship at Scienceworks.
The Grade 5 and 6 students had been working hard to construct and program four robots to compete in the competitions Dance and Soccer categories.
Information and Technology teacher Chris James said the students performed well even up against secondary school opponents.
“It was a huge challenge,” Mr James said.
“They worked hard to create something that would be able to do the job,” he said.
The robots were created and programmed to complete a series of tasks.
The soccer category required two robots, a goal keeper and an attacker, to independently play a game of soccer against opponents.
In the dance category the robots had to complete a choreographed dance routine.
The school’s soccer team, which included students William Corluka, Adam Buhin, Jack Patterson and Alex Viscovich and their two robots, were unbeaten and became the State Champions.
“In the grand final one of the robots was actually dropped and shattered into pieces,” Mr James said.
“Adam reconstructed it very, very quickly while the match was still going on.”
“He got it done so quickly that the other team didn’t even get to score a goal.”
“That shows a great presence of mind.”
Mr James said the robotic program, which was the first of its kind at the school, helped students in areas such as problem solving and teamwork skills.
The school’s dance team finished in third place at the championships.
