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More than 600 UAE teams have registered to participate in the UAE 2011 World Robot Olympiad (WRO), with the first of five national events commencing today in Abu Dhabi. Participation in the UAE National Robotic Challenge has increased by more than four times since last year the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) announced.
Following extensive teacher training opportunities and robotic kit provision by ADEC, the UAE’s National competition received over 600 UAE registered teams from regions across the country including Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quawin, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. The final registration results for the country includes 235 teams from Abu Dhabi; 155 teams from Al Ain; 98 teams from Dubai, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain and Ajman; 79 teams from Al Gharbia; and 35 teams from Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.
Participants in the Abu Dhabi competition competed in both regular and open categories. The open category saw a range of practical applications of robots with teams presenting real-world solutions for special needs assistance, disaster recovery, household applications and environmental challenges, amongst others.
Saud Mohammad Abdulla and Saeed Ghanam Hassan, both 17-year-olds from Secondary Technical School in Shahama developed an innovative cost-efficient automatic wheelchair to support individuals with disabilities.
“It costs around Dhs 12,000 in the market for an automatic wheelchair,” Abdulla said. “We bought a manual wheel chair and with the use of robotics we have transformed it into an automatic chair for a total of Dhs 1,600 including the required sensors. We like technology and we wanted to help handicapped people who could not afford the automatic chairs.”
In the future the team is looking to develop a wheelchair controlled by voice and sound recognition technology, his partner Hassan said.
In the regular category students had 150 minutes to assemble robots adhering to specific rules to accomplish a particular mission, such as developing stair climbing and recycling robots.
In the WRO GEN 11 Robot Football category teams were tasked with developing two robots, an “attacker” and a “goal keeper” for a series of challenges to either score or defend goals against competing teams.
“Our team has won two matches so far,” 18-year-old Mahmoud Al Sayad said excitedly. “Through this experience we have learned how to program and create our own robots.”
Due to the overwhelming response and participation in the WRO UAE, the venue of the Abu Dhabi competition on October 2nd was relocated to the Abu Dhabi Women’s College Khalifa “A” campus to accommodate the larger than expected numbers.
“We are thrilled with this year’s enthusiasm in the National competition and have been impressed with the student’s creativity, teamwork and contribution in today’s robotic challenges,” said Dr. Najla Al Naqbi, Program manager of ADEC.
The UAE’s National Robotic Challenge comprises five competition events that will take place from October 2-12, 2011. A select number of UAE teams will qualify from the National competition to participate in the 8th International 2011 WRO, which will be hosted by ADEC in Abu Dhabi for the first time from November 18th to 20th at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). ADEC won the bid to host the 2011 World Robot Olympiad in 2009 for its 10-year strategic education reform agenda and commitment to providing students with world class technology education through robotics.
The WRO brings together students from all over the world to participate in various robotic challenges and competitions that combine science, technology and education.
For the National Competition, visit www.wrouae.ae
For the International Competition, visit http://www.wroboto.org
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