Student Robotics is a registered charity that runs an annual robotics competition for teams of 16 to 19 year-olds.[1] The charity aims to foster a world where engineering and artificial intelligence is accessible to young people with a stated mission "to bring the excitement of engineering and the challenge of coding to young people through robotics".[2] The competition is free to enter and teams are provided with all of the core electronics that they need to build a robot. To encourage creative and ingenious solutions to problems, constraints on design (other than overall size) are kept to a minimum, and the students can build and fashion their robots with any materials they choose; this results in a wide range of quirky, original robots. The robots must operate autonomously; once they are switched on to compete no interference from the team is allowed.[3]
The organisation was founded at the University of Southampton in 2006 by Robert Gilton and Stephen English. Students at the University of Bristol[4] and Grenoble INP[5] joined the project in 2010. In 2016 the organisation became a registered charity.
Student Robotics competition
The competition is designed, organised and managed by a team of volunteers ("Blueshirts"). Most volunteers have previously competed in an annual competition and many have gone on to study robotics, computer science or engineering at university. The competition takes place over a weekend in April/May. There are a series of league matches, spread over two half days, where each team competes against 3 other robots, to score points. On the afternoon of the second day, the points from the league table determine the rounds for the knockout stage, which eventually determines the winners of the competition.
Teams are introduced to the competition, and provided with their kit, at a "KickStart" event at the beginning of the academic year in October. Kickstart involves briefings on the competition challenge, and its rules, by Student Robotics volunteers. There is also a mini-game to introduce the teams to the kit. During the competition cycle, "Tech Days" held at various locations where teams are encouraged to work on their robot under the supervision of Student Robotics' Volunteers.
Historically the competition has been hosted on the Highfield Campus of the University of Southampton, however the 2014 and 2015 competitions were held at Newbury Racecourse Grandstand. Kickstart is also held on the Highfield Campus of the University of Southampton, but for the 2014 competition there were Kickstarts at the University of Bristol and Gresham's School, and for the 2015 competition there were Kickstarts at the University of Bristol, Facebook's office in London, and Technische Universität München. In 2017, two Kickstart events were held, at the University of Southampton and at the offices of Thread in London.
The competition rules mandate that the robots are autonomous, rather than remote controlled. The competitors may program their robot in Python via an IDE provided by Student Robotics. Student Robotics does not ban, nor support other methods than the IDE for programming their robots.
The competition is free to enter although schools have to make their own travel arrangements and provide the materials to build a chassis and fashion their robot. In some years a small budget has been given to schools.[6]
Robotics kit
Another group of volunteers (the Kit Team) develops and maintains a modular "robotics kit" that is provided to every team.[7] The current revision of the kit uses a Raspberry Pi 4 as its central controller; previously both an Odroid U3 (2015 - 2022) and BeagleBoard have been used. Most competitors use the Python programming language and teams are given access to a software library to ease interaction with the kit. However, it is not a requirement that they use Python or the library.
A Servo Board (Board for controlling up to twelve servos)
A USB Webcam
Two 11.1V 2200mAh Lithium Polymer batteries
The software library includes a vision system based on OpenCV, although previously a system called libkoki was specifically developed for the competition. This allows for markers, placed in the arena, on other robots and on game objects/obstacles, to be seen by the robot. These provide information such as distance, position and rotation.[10]
As the competition is free to enter, Student Robotics requires that the kit is returned post-competition.[11]
Competitions
2022: "This Way Up"
This task involved moving and stacking cans of food in an arena, and marks the return of Student Robotics to an in-person competition following the COVID-19 pandemic.
This competition year also marked a transition to Python 3 on the physical kit, and a new computer vision system based on OpenCV.
Arena for "This Way Up" in "The Cube"
23 teams attended the competition that was held at the University of Southampton on 23 and 24 April 2022.[12] Notably, the competition had two arenas, one for testing only and one for matches. The arenas were also smaller than previous years at 6.5m x 6.5m, compared to the previous 8m x 8m.
This task involved using virtual radios to navigate an arena and "claim" a number of towers. The 2021 competition was held remotely using the same simulator framework that was used for the 2020 competition, which allowed for this novel navigation system in addition to a number of more traditional sensor components.[13]
Due to the remote nature of the competition, the usual structure of having a weekend with all matches on was replaced with four game "modules". League sessions were held over a number of weeks, with a new module and therefore additional complexity introduced into the game after each league session.[14]
This task involved gathering cardboard boxes (tokens) of exactly one colour. Both Gold and Silver tokens were placed in the arena. A central raised platform was placed at the centre of the arena to act as an obstacle.[15]
The virtual arena from the Student Robotics 2020 Live-stream
A virtual competition was held[19] instead of the physical competition across three weekends in July 2020. A simulated environment based on Webots was developed and distributed to teams. Teams were instructed to submit code at the start of each competition day, so that matches could be pre-recorded, and then live-streamed over YouTube.
This final resulted in a 4-way tie so a tiebreaker match was held, the first since 2013.
The Robot and Team Image award was not issued this year.[20] This year also marked the first year to use Python 3 for student code, albeit only for the competition simulator.
2019: "Caldera"
This task involved moving cardboard boxes (tokens) around the arena in order to capture zones. A central "volcano" was placed at the centre of the arena to act as an obstacle; zones on the volcano were worth more points.[21]
37 teams attended the competition that was held at the University of Southampton on 6 and 7 April 2019.[22]
There was no Student Robotics competition in 2018. Due to some organisational issues within the charity, it was decided to take a year off to reorganise and ensure the longevity of the charity.[23]
Two alternate competitions were held with very similar characteristics and involved many of the original volunteers.
SourceBots - A ten team competition was held at the University of Southampton on 21 and 22 April.[24]
Hills Road Robocon - A twelve team competition was held at Hills Road Sixth Form College.[25]
2017: "Easy as ABC"
The task involved picking up cardboard cubes labelled A, B or C, and placing them in the team's allocated zone, scoring additional points by collecting cubes in the order ABC.
The task involved rotating cardboard cubes to the colour of the respective teams, and scoring additional points by picking up the cubes and placing them in the corners.
Details on the 2015 competition and awards can be found in the 2015 rulebook
2014: "Slots"
The task involved moving 20 cm3 cubes from their start positions into slots in the centre on the arena. Points were awarded for occupying slots. Another main factor was that the tokens could be flipped 180 degrees in order to score extra points.
Details on the 2014 competition and awards can be found in the 2014 rulebook
2013: "A Strange game"
The task involved moving large tokens into squares situated on the floor to take ownership of that square. The zone was owned by the team which had the most tokens in it. Points are awarded dependent of how many squares are owned by a team. In each zone there is a "pedestal" which if a robot gets to put their token on, they own that zone no matter on the number of other tokens in the square. Multipliers are awarded for getting zones in a row or column.
The 2013 competition final ended in a three-way tie, so a tie-breaker round was played.
This tie breaker has been said to be the most tense match in Student Robotics history as it was won 3 seconds before the end. The video of this can be found here.
Details on the competition and awards can be found in the 2013 rulebook.
2012: "Pirate plunder"
The task involved robots having to collect randomly located tokens from the arena, and depositing it in their zone of the arena. Bonus points were added for any token that was placed into a bucket in that zone.
This was the first year that used the latest vision system: libkoki.
Details on the awards can be found in the 2012 Rulebook
2011: "Tin can rally"
The task was to go around the arena, gaining points for each corner passed. Multipliers were applied to the points gained related to the number of baked bean tins that the robot had picked up en route.
This was the first year that used the latest revision of kit.
Details on the awards can be found in the 2011 Rulebook
2010: "QuacMan"
The challenge involved picking up small wooden tokens of the correct colour, with points being lost for picking up the wrong colour blocks.
In addition, a super token (a rubber duck, from which the game's name was derived) was placed on top of a ramp in the centre of the arena, which was worth enough points alone to swing the match.
2009: "Golf" and "Squirrel"
In 2009, two game types were specified, both involved collection & placement of coloured play-balls.[28]
Teams had a home zone on the floor of the arena, as well as a net suspended above their corner, into which the balls could be placed.
In Golf, teams had to place the balls into their opponents' zones & nets, while in Squirrel the challenge was reversed, with teams aiming to collect the balls.
2008
The first game was not named, and involved teams collecting coloured tokens that were painted wooden cubes.[29]
References
^"Charity Details". beta.charitycommission.gov.uk. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
