Robotics Technology

Robotics is growing fast around the world, team from Phillipine. Not just Japan and United States as the leader in robotics, Phillipine is now improving the robotics knowledge…

THREE elementary-school students, who emphasized the urgency of saving the world from environmental degradation, bagged the silver medal in the open category of the World Robot Olympiad held recently in Yokohama, Japan.

Coached by Melanie Tizon and Warren John Ong Pe, Grade 6 student Joseph Aldrin Chua and Grade 5 students Eldrich Chua and Dominique Sy, all from the Grace Christian Elementary School, bagged the silver medal with a certificate and a Lego trophy, beating 21 other schools.

This is the first time that the Philippines garnered a medal in the open category in the elementary level of the competition.

The students’ winning entry, entitled “Green Whiz Community and the G-Tech Robot Engineering a Better World,” features 12 robots doing various tasks to help save the environment.

The wiz kids’ robots aimed to show the urgency of saving the environment, emphasizing that technology can be used to stop the destruction of, and save the planet from, environmental degradation.

The featured robots include Next Gen Car, a lightweight hydrogen-powered car which consumes lesser energy; H2O (Water) Treatment Robot, which is designed to filter wastewater from factories for safe disposal; E-Sorter, a robot that sorts biodegradable and nonbiodegradable garbage using color coding of containers; Paper Recycling Area, a factory robot that recycles used paper into usable materials; Iced Sub-Zero Robot that makes melted ice in the polar region back into ice form; and Forest Surveillance Robot, which has a built-in camera that guards forests and waterfalls from illegal loggers and hunters.

Other robots used were AD Robot, which is perched on the top of a mountain and advertises the importance of planting trees in order to save the earth; Air Pollution Monitor Robot, designed to monitor the level of carbon dioxide and other pollutants; CO2 (carbon dioxide) Sequester E3K, designed to sequester carbon dioxide emitted by factories; E-Card, used to switch on and off household appliances; Heliostatic Mirrors are equipped with mirrors that follow sunlight and magnify it as an alternative source of light; and WM 123 are windmill robots that serve as alternative source of energy for the community.

Students from Benigno Aquino High School and the International School of Manila won certificates for winning the sixth place in the open category of the high- school and primary levels, respectively.

Capturing the gold medals for the open category were Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea for the senior high-school, junior high-school and primary levels, respectively. In the regular category, South Korea received gold medals for the primary and junior high-school levels, while Sweden got the top prize for the senior high-school level.

South Korea obtained three gold medals, Singapore got one silver and one bronze, and Malaysia got one gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the entire event.

In the open category, student-contestants were tasked to create robots within the theme “Saving the Global Environment,” which were judged based on their appearance, uniqueness, interactive behavior, good engineering and stability. Team members showed the quality of the entry through successful demonstration, good explanation and projected high team spirit.

Science Education Institute Director Dr. Ester Ogena said the Philippine team’s triumph was proof that Filipino students are on a par with students around the world.

“Our students have shown their best and given more opportunities like these, we could tap more potential in the field of robotics,” she said.

Ogena vowed to increase more support in robotics as it takes the lead, together with Felta Multi-media, in preparing for the staging of the World Robotics Olympiad (WRO) in the Philippines in 2010.

“Preparations are under way for this grand event and we are very excited with the privilege that we would be hosting the WRO two years from now,” she said.

Ogena said the robotics olympiad is a good training ground for future engineers who would like to improve the way of living in the world through robotics.

“Our end goal in supporting the WRO is to entice our students to venture into science careers and beef up the critical mass of scientists and engineers our country needs,” she said.