The Helderberg Robotics Club’s “Team Null” was one of more than 565 teams from 95 countries that participated in the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) International, held in Izmir, Turkiye from Thursday 28 to Saturday 30 November.
This impressive achievement followed their remarkable performance in the WRO South Africa, where they clinched gold in the most challenging category. Team Null was the only team from all the schools and clubs in South Africa capable of executing the challenge, which involved building and programming an autonomous car to follow a path, avoid obstacles and perform random parking manoeuvres.
During the competition’s first day, the local team excelled in the Future Engineers Category on the global stage, achieving a perfect score of 30/30 in just 96 seconds. At this point they were ranked 11th globally, sharing the top score but slightly slower than 10 other robots. On the second day, with 70 points up for grabs, their robot unfortunately made a wrong turn in the final round, earning them 27 points. This misstep dropped their ranking to 15th place. However, they still managed to score 20/30 for their documentation.
This year marked the first time the Helderberg Robotics Club competed in this challenging category, and finishing in 15th place out of 50 competing teams is a testament to their brilliance. Although teams from 95 countries were invited, only 50 managed to tackle this demanding category. Remarkably, Team Null was the only South African team to achieve success in the Advanced Robotics category.
Teams were tasked with constructing and programming an autonomous robot car capable of driving three rounds around a circuit while avoiding obstacles using artificial intelligence (AI), as remote control was prohibited. Team Null redesigned their robot, Gremlin, after the South African competition to enhance its effectiveness and compactness.
For more information on the Helderberg Robotics Club visit its website at helderbergrobotics.co.za.
