Robots on the ball for world championships
Four University of Queensland students and their soccer-playing robots will represent Australia at one of the world's major robotic championships in Japan in early March.
The students built Roobot One and Roobot Two to compete in the Robocon 99 World Robotics Championships on March 7. The team is the only one from Australia invited to participate.
Project manager/supervisor and PhD student in mechanical engineering and mechatronics Michael Lucas said Robocon was the most prestigious design and build competition for Japanese engineering students. The competition has attracted an annual TV audience of more than 15 million people since its inception in 1990.
In 1997 the competition was opened to international teams, with the University of Queensland representing Australia at Robocon 98, as the first team from outside the Asian continent.
"Our strong performance last year with our entries Kangabot and Wombot ensured we would be invited to Robocon 99," he said. "This year the competition is in Koriama City, in the mountainous Fukushima region of Japan."
Robocon 99 is based on the game of soccer, with two semi-automatic robots per team. Two teams battle for points for five minutes playing with 21 balls on a field the size of a basketball court. It is a knockout competition, with the winner continuing to the next round.
The Australian robots, constructed in the UQ Mechanical Engineering Department's MaD Lab (Manufacturing and Design Lab), are about 1.4 metres long and wide, and 1.5m tall. Although the machines are made from heavy sectioned aluminium, each robot weighs only 48kg and is fitted with a foam bumper to protect from impacts with other machines. As practical fashion accessories, the robots are covered in black tulle netting and foamcore sidings to protect the drivers from flying soccerballs.
Mr Lucas said the robots collected soccer balls and gripped them with pneumatic clamps, then raised them 60cm, before kicking them out at 45 degrees over the bumpers.
The University of Queensland team group began preparing for Robocon last May, and the robot designs evolved as the final team composition changed. Construction was based on available parts and funds, and late changes in the rules sent from Japan.
Mr Lucas said the students completed final design work and construction during their summer break, and the robots made their first public appearance at the Dean's welcome to first-year engineers during Orientation Week at the University's St Lucia campus.
Team members are Mr Lucas, team captain William Twyford, Stephen Brammer (both fourth-year Mechanical and Space Engineering students) and Melissa Ness (a third-year electrical engineering student).
They raised the $40,000 plus project budget in two months, including the costs of prototype construction, robot construction and testing and transport.
Sponsors include Japanese broadcaster NHK, multinational pneumatics company FESTO, the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane, Adelaide-based wheelchair manufacturer Rollerchair, and Mechanimation Technology Services Australia.
Associate Professor David Radcliffe and the University's Mechanical Engineering Department have also assisted the project through access to facilities such as the MaD Lab.
The students will leave for Japan on March 4 to compete in Robocon, which will be filmed in front of a live audience of 10,000 people on March 7.
Team members have also been invited as special guests for Karakuri, a combined mechatronics tradeshow and festival of creative robotics, to be held on March 8 in Koriama. They will then return home via Tokyo, where they hope to pick up parts for next year's competition, the details of which will be released to team captains during Karakuri.
For further information, contact Mr Lucas, telephone 07 3365 3593 email: lucas@mech.uq.edu.au or Dr Radcliffe, telephone 3365 3579 email: radcliffe@mech.uq.edu.au
