1,000 world’s robotic contestants ready to compete in Jakarta

1,000 world’s robotic contestants ready to compete in Jakarta

Jakarta - When talking about robots, our mind is directly associated with those robots featured in movies, such as R2D2 or C3P0 in Star Wars. Yet, they do not exist only in movies but they are very much part of our real life, and it turns out that children as well as teens have remarkable creativity about those humanoids.

The battle of concept ideas, utilities, creativities, and applications of children and teen-made robots from various schools all over the world will be held in Jakarta, in an event titled the International Robotic Olympiad 2011 (IRO2011). As many as 13 countries will send their contingents comprising of school students, including 1,000 robots made by each team.   

The 13 participating countries, among others, are the USA, South Korea, India, China, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia as the host. The participants are divided into categories of elementary, junior high, and high school students. All of them are accompanied by supporting teams that originate from well-known universities in their respective countries.

“Do not ever look down on the children’s and teens’ intellectual capacity and creativity. Mind you, there is even a utility robot that can help perform household chores made by a South Korean girl, who intends to help her mother to do household chores,” said the Organizing Committee Chairman of IRO2011, Santoso Gondowidjojo.

Based on the child’s idea, the concept is then adopted by one local manufacturing company that subsequently developed that simple robot. “That is a tangible evidence that robots are very close to our everyday life, and there are many more”, he added.

In this IRO2011 edition, there are two additional categories being contested, namely, Indonesiana Robot and Energy Saving Robot where they are required to be able to preserve and conserve energy resources in any form.

There are 12 categories that are generally divided into two main categories, namely,the programmed robot and creative robot. These are the two primary aspects that are commonly found in a robot creation.

“Eventually, there will be a meeting point between the conceptual stage and creativity at this level and the industrial world that can develop it on a commercial scale so that the society can enjoy it”, he explained. The ideas and creativity in the robotic realm is truly unlimited.

“Normally, a robot creation emerges when a problem arises that requires it to be solved. The advantage that today’s children have is that they are very informatics savvy and this will be a very determinant capital”, he concluded.

Sumber: http://www.antaranews.com

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