More than 135 students from 29 high schools across Saskatchewan were at Saskatchewan Polytechnic for the 14th annual Robot Rumble Thursday. Students spent the final hours making programming adjustments, testing their robots, or trying to stay calm before sending their machines into the sumo circle. The last one inside the circle wins. “Our previous teams before, they’ve actually dominated at this competition,” said Brooklyn, a student at Rossignol High School in Île-À-La-Crosse. “So, we kind of have to live up to our name.” While Rossignol always performs well, it was a new team of competitors this year. “This is actually our first year in robotics,” said Jackson, a first-year competitor from Rossignol High School. “So everyone here is new to it.” While some schools came with reputations, others were in the sumo-style robot competition for the first time and were a little nervous. “We went to an escape room yesterday, to just take off the nerves,” said Samantha, a student at Churchill Community High School in La Ronge. “I think it added more stress.” Robots were entered in one of two categories, stock or modified. With no attached controls, the robots are powered by pre-programmed codes loaded from a computer software program. They respond to input from onboard sensors. “They have cameras on top which identifies objects,” said Jonathan, Pangman High School. “And then they have infrared underneath which identifies colours. So once it hits the white border, it stops and turns around.” Before the competition, students tested their designs before sending them into battle. The object is to push your opponent outside of the black ring or stay moving inside it for longer. “It’s really durable,” said Joie, Churchill Community High School. “Because I’ve run this a couple of times, and the testing robot was almost broken.” With the right combination of commands, the robot can be hard to beat. “A previous team member had actually wrote up a code and we found that their code works,” Brooklyn told CTV News. “We’ve been trying to make it a little different with the designs, but so far it’s kind of been the same. So we’re going to roll with what works so far.” And the experience gained at this event, especially in coding, will serve these students in the future. “I was actually talking to our coach about it,” said Brooklyn,” And coding is kind of what people are looking for. So it’s definitely a critical skill you can have.” The event hosted by Saskatchewan Polytechnic is also a highlight for students and instructors in the Electronic Systems Engineering Technology program, who helped organize the event and judge the battles.
