RoboCup Junior 2017 held at UQ

More than 560 primary and secondary students from Australia, China, Taiwan and South Korea visited the University of Queensland over the weekend to take part in this year’s RoboCup Junior Australian Open Championships.

The students competed to design, program and build robots to respond to a range of challenges, including playing soccer, dancing and performing rescues.

A team from Brisbane Boys College dominated in the soccer division of the competition, taking first place in the lightweight and open league and second in the standard league.

In the dance division, Hamilton South Public School took first place in the primary school category, Somerville House topped the secondary category and Central Coast Grammar School won the open category.

Finally, teams from St George Christian School, Glen Waverly Secondary College, the Taiwan delegation and an independent team won first place in the various categories of the rescue division.

The ultimate goal of the RoboCup Junior competition — which commenced in Melbourne in 2000 — is that by the middle of the century a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players can play and win against a world champion human team. The competition is now hosted in 30 countries worldwide.

“RoboCup Junior is about fostering teamwork, creativity and innovation using technology,” competition coordinator and UQ School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering researcher Dr Marie Boden said.

“Many UQ alumni started at a RoboCup Junior competition, which inspired them to continue with higher education.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/phonlamaiphoto