Vodacom rAge 2019 has added another first to its growing list of exciting attractions. For the first time,
The World Robotic Olympiad SA (WRO SA) will set up shop at Vodacom rAge 2019 host their top teams.
The World Robotic Olympiad (WRO) is a global event that brings together young people from all over the world to develop their creativity and problem-solving skills through a robotics competition.
This year, there have been five provincial WRO SA events across the country, with the top nine qualifying teams who win the finals across the different categories getting the chance to compete at the WRO international in Hungary.
The finals of the provincial events will be taking place over the course of the Vodacom rAge 2019 weekend and the public is invited to come watch as teams literally battle it out for glory as their robotic creations come to life.
The global theme of WRO for 2019 is “Smart Cities”.
Friday afternoon will see the WRO SA National Explorer Competition teams coming out with some of the most interesting creations. This category is not part of the international finals but is rather a category that allows juniors to be a part of this technological phenomenon that is taking the world by storm. These teams are made up of outreach robotics learners who, with the help of WRO SA and the Department of Science and Technology, have the opportunity to be involved and potentially move up the ranks into the international finals and one day take their creativity and skill to compete overseas. This category showcases age-appropriate challenges on tabletops in which teams design, build and program a LEGO Mindstorms robot to solve a solution.
Over the course of Saturday, the WRO SA National Competition finals will take place. Winners of these categories have the chance to take their teams and all their tricks to the world final in Hungary. There is also a football round robin where 10 teams of two robots play autonomous football against each other using an infra-red ball and seekers plus a compass sensor.
On Sunday corporate teams will participate in the Corporate Inter-Company Challenge, where teams need to program a robot to solve various challenges on a competition table.
“Being able to showcase the work that WRO SA is doing at an event like Vodacom rAge is extremely exciting for us,” says Danie Heymans from WRO SA. “Our teams are made up of coders and programmers who are immersed in the world of robotics – a category with a massive overlap into the world of gaming. A lot of these contestants are going to become a pivotal part of the future of gaming in South Africa, and for them to have exposure across this platform is phenomenal. We are also looking forward to getting the public involved in what we are doing to give them a taste of what the robotics landscape is all about.”