POLOKWANE – With just an hour to complete a World Robot Olympiad Gauteng South Regional mission and a problematic robot, Emma Steyn and Genesis Soobramani worked together to execute a back up-plan.
The duo, also known as team ‘Royal Blue’ were recently up against 99 other teams and ranked 16th in the top 18.
“Our sensors did not want to work but we made a plan to still score and we executed it extremely well,” Emma told the Polokwane Review.
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Both Emma, who only joined Robotics this year, and Genesis are 13-year-old learners from Curro Heuwelkruin and were competing in their first competition together.
“Genesis needed a teammate and asked if I would be interested. I was a bit nervous for the competition and it was a bit strange, but I was confident we would succeed.”
The mission was to locate and extinguish a fire, move chemicals out of a factory, find people, cross uneven ground and park the robot. Bonus points were rewarded if the contestants did not move or damage the walls inside the factory.
“The programme was a struggle and we had trouble with our sensors due to a lightning difference. We had to change our programme to one that will work,” Genesis said.
Emma and Genesis used their afternoons and break-time to prepare for the competition and at times, worked more than seven hours together to made sure they were ready.
The girls were invited to compete in the World Robot Olympiad South African National finals in the robo mission junior age group.
