Top End students do battle with robots

School students from across the Top End have competed with robots in the Northern Territory’s first RoboCup Junior Australia challenge, at Charles Darwin University’s Casuarina campus.

More than 250 students from 15 schools in Darwin, Palmerston and Katherine tested their programing and problem-solving skills while competing in the robotic challenges of dance, rescue and demonstration soccer.

Wagaman Primary dominated the awards in the Junior Robotics Dance category, winning awards in all three places. 

Marrara Christian College and Darwin Middle school won awards in the Secondary Dance category, and the Essington School, Kormilda College, Anula Primary School and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic College for the Rescue Missions category.

Other schools included St Paul's Catholic Primary School, Katherine High School and Katherine School of the Air.

Inspiring Australia Manager Paul Lyons said many primary and secondary schools in the NT had started to incorporate robotics into their classroom activities.

“The advantage of this robots challenge and the use of robots in schools is that students can get first-hand experiences of the applications of programing, coding, and the use of Artificial Intelligence sensors,” Mr Lyons said.

“Then the students can share their skills and knowledge with each other to become even better problem solvers.”

RoboCup Junior Australia is a project-oriented educational initiative that supports local, regional and international robotic events for school students. It is part of an international effort to foster Artificial Intelligence and robotics research by providing a standard problem where a wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined. The initiative serves as a basis for project-oriented education.