1,571 participants from 91 countries compete in Singapore’s World Robot Olympiad, featuring autonomous driving and problem-solving robot challenges.
SINGAPORE: The World Robot Olympiad commenced in Singapore on Wednesday, featuring hundreds of international students as young as eight competing with robots to address real-world problems.
This annual competition, first held in Singapore in 2004, emphasises technology and science’s role in improving daily life through young students’ inventive spirit.
Organisers reported 594 teams comprising 1,571 participants from 91 countries registered for Thursday and Friday competitions under the theme “The Future of Robots”.
The theme “explores the way robotics can help solve global challenges and improve our lives”, according to organisers’ documentation.
Contestants aged eight to 22 all advanced from local and national qualifiers to compete globally.
Participants will compete in age-grouped categories across various challenges.
One category challenges students to “build and programme a robot that solves challenges on a field” that changes randomly each round, requiring independent machine decisions.
Robots will face off in “double tennis” matches in the RoboSports category.
Another category requires participants to “develop a robot project that helps solve real-world problems”.
A new autonomous driving category for 14 to 22-year-olds tasks teams to “build a steering-drive robot to navigate a track independently”.
“This year’s theme… invites participants to design intelligent machines for a smarter future,” said Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu.
“Robotics is a growth area for Singapore,” she added.
“We’re developing autonomous vehicles, drones for the safe washing of high-rise facades and robots that support health care services,” Fu stated.
