April saw the return of the world's largest and most important competition for robot technology for young people: RoboCup Junior. All Austrian participants competed, but also winners from other countries, as this contest takes place in Austria as an open competition. All the greater the success and the joy of the winning team inmoov reloaded -powered by BT-Anlagenbau, which prevailed against 56 teams.
182 participants with around 40 coaches from Slovenia, Croatia and Austria travelled to Weiz to take part in the RoboCup Junior Austrian Open. The excitement was palpable after the competition had to be cancelled the last two years due to the pandemic. But this did not mean that there has been no further development, quite the opposite actually. The HTL Weiz teams have made good use of the time and brought inmoov to a level that is unparalleled around the world.
At RoboCup, teams can compete in three disciplines: Rescue (search and rescue of victims), onStage (technical knowledge and creativity) and Soccer (robot football match). HTL Weiz was represented by two teams in the onStage category and was very successful. 3rd place went to the junior team (1st and 2nd grade information technology students). The winning team - and thus state champions - Andrea Windisch, Thomas Baumkirchner, Markus Rauber and Manuel Schaumberger from the 4th grade electrical engineering class were able to convince the judges with their performance controlling their humanoid robot named inmoov reloaded.
The jury and the audience were thrilled because Inmoov played „rock, paper, scissors“ - a technical, mechanical and electronic masterpiece. Incidentally, the complex programming of the optical imaging and thus the gesture recognition was contributed by the only girl in the team, Andrea Windisch.
Teamwork is the order of the day for the participants aged between 10 and 18, especially when they are challenged with the task of building, programming and troubleshooting with equal focus. "What we see here is the perfect interplay between mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and programming," says Prof. Anton Edl, organiser of the event and teacher at HTL Weiz. It's worth mentioning that the young people communicate in English all the time. And because only teamwork leads to success, the organisation and running of the competition was also planned and actively carried out by pupils and teachers, such as making the trophies or setting up and taking down the Austrian Open.
The European Championship will take place in Portugal from 1 to 4 June 2022, the World Cup six weeks later in Bangkok. BT-Anlagenbau would like to congratulate the dedicated students and wishes them good luck for the upcoming competitions.
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