Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf took 1st place in Student Robotics 2024 after an exciting final match against The Ladies’ College Guernsey, Headington School and Wisbech Grammar School. All the teams have worked amazingly hard over the past six months to design, build & program their robots and it was great to see them compete.

The game: Final Frontier

This year’s game, Final Frontier, plunged teams into an interstellar battle for dominance between four formidable civilizations, all vying for control of the cosmos. Teams had to retrieve Asteroids scattered throughout the Asteroid field and transport them back to their home Planet or, even better, their intergalactic Spaceship currently under construction.

However the stakes are high as within the confines of the asteroid belt lies The Egg – a cosmic time bomb that, if disturbed, would spell chaos. Teams had to strategise, navigate the treacherous field, and decide whether to safeguard their own civilization or sabotage their rivals. With Asteroids worth points, Spaceships to manage, and The Egg lurking, the universe had never been this competitive.

Challenges

Following on from last year’s success, this year’s competition offered teams a set of Challenges to be completed throughout the competition year. These encouraged teams to start work on their robots early and covered movement, mechanics, and vision. They could be approached in any order, and completing challenges before certain deadlines earned the teams bonus league points.

Virtual Competition

The first part of our league this year was a virtual competition, broadcast live in March. Across twenty-one matches, teams competed in a simulated version of the main competition, testing their coding skills against one another. Wisbech Grammar School offered the best performance on the day, coming 1st in all four of their matches, though the team from Haberdashers’ Schools remained at the top of the leaderboard due to points they’d earned from the Challenges.

League Matches

During the in person event teams participated in a further 69 league matches, allowing the robots to improve and evolve both their construction and strategies. The robots displayed impressive agility, precision and ingenuity as they navigated the arena to capture Asteroids (and Spaceships in some cases) as well as outmanoeuvre their opponents.

At the end of the league there were only two league points separating the top three teams (The Ladies’ College Guernsey, Wisbech Grammar School and Royal Grammar School Guildford), with the next few teams not far behind.

Knockouts

The knockout rounds saw teams from the league matches pitted against one another in intense, high-stakes battles. With each round, the competition grew fiercer, and the robots were pushed to their limits as they raced to collect tokens and secure their place in the finals.

The Final

The thrilling final featured four teams which had shown consistent performance throughout the earlier stages and included teams from three schools which have previously won Student Robotics, so it promised to be exciting even before it started.

In a surprise move at the start of the match Wisbech Grammar School immediately captured The Ladies’ College’s Spaceship. This appeared to confuse The Ladies’ College’s robot, though it soon switched to placing Asteroids on its Planet instead. Meanwhile Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf managed to get a token into their own Spaceship, giving them a commanding lead.

The Ladies’ College and Headington School each captured two Asteroids, however Headington School’s robot gifted The Ladies’ College a third in the late stages of the match. Wisbech Grammar School’s consistent performance let them capture four Asteroids, and might have been enough to win had Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf not also captured some Asteroids into its robot.

Wisbech Grammar School were the source of another tense moment near the very end of the match when they attempted to steal The Ladies’ College’s first Asteroid, however they were unable to navigate off the Planet in time meaning that the Asteroid still scored for The Ladies’ College.

Results

• Winner: MAI – Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf
• 2nd place: WGS – Wisbech Grammar School
• 3rd place: TLC – The Ladies’ College, Guernsey (award sponsored by University of Southampton ECS)
• Excellence in Engineering award: ABS – Abingdon School (award sponsored by UK Electronics Skills Foundation)
• Rookie award: HBS – The Henry Box School
• Robot and team image award: MAI – Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf (award sponsored by ITDev)
• Online presence award: WMC – Westminster City School (Instagram, TikTok)
• Challenges award: RGS – Royal Grammar School Guildford

In the thrilling final, Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf triumphed over their opponents to win the Student Robotics 2024 competition. Meanwhile Wisbech Grammar School’s cunning tactics allowed them to edge out The Ladies’ College and Headington School.

The Excellence in Engineering Award is given to the team that displays the most extraordinary ingenuity in the design of their robot. As engineers, we appreciate elegance, simplicity, and robust engineering. This year the Excellence in Engineering award was given to Abingdon School for their robot’s precise use of Mecanum wheels and conveyor belt to take their Spaceship into the Asteroid field and fill it with Asteroids before returning to their home Planet.

We’re always delighted to welcome new teams to Student Robotics and understand how big a challenge it can be without prior experience. To recognise this additional challenge, we award the Rookie Award to the highest placed newcomer in the league, celebrating their incredible achievement. This year’s recipient was The Henry Box School with their very compact robot which used Meccano arms in its quest for Asteroids.

We award the Robot and Team Image Award to the team that presents themselves in the most outstanding way. As usual our teams rose to the challenge and we saw some fantastic themes! We loved The College of Richard Collyer’s thunder theme, which included competitors in face-paint, however the award for Robot and Team Image went to Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf for their stand-out ladybird theme. All team members had red capes with black dots and their red acrylic robot sported a pair of giant googly eyes.

Through social media, teams can share the problems they’re facing as well as their designs and successes. A few teams stood out to us this year with their regular uploads, but the winner of the Online Presence Award was Westminster City School for consistent and high quality posts throughout the year on multiple platforms. The judges were especially impressed by their video interviews at the competition event itself.

Check out the rulebook for all the details on the awards we give.

Thank You

This year’s competition would not have been possible without all of our amazing sponsors. Their generous support allows us to make Student Robotics free to enter and help us continue in our mission to bring the excitement of engineering and the challenge of coding to young people through robotics.

Our SR2024 Sponsors

• The University of Southampton Engineering and Computer Science
• UK Electronics Skills Foundation
• Adventurous Machines
• ITDev
• Mythic Beasts
• Hexibox

We’re always looking to partner with more organisations. If you’d like to work with us, see our sponsor page.

Our Volunteers

We’d also like to thank our volunteers, who make Student Robotics happen every year! Some have helped at the competition itself, while others have been in teams working throughout the year to organise the event. Our Competition Team designs, organises, and delivers Tech Days and the Competition weekend. Our Kit Team designs and supports the software and hardware our competitors use; the Infrastructure Team ensures that our website stays up and our internal teams can work collaboratively; the Fundraising Team ensures that we have the resources needed to run our events; and the Marketing Team makes sure our efforts are seen and heard by all. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s competition.

If you’re reading this and want to join us next year, sign up on our volunteering page.

Notes to editors

Student Robotics is an annual robotics competition for 16-19 year-olds in the UK and Europe. It was founded in 2006 by university students and is free to enter thanks to our sponsors and many volunteers. Since it was first run in 2008, the final competition has grown from one room at the University of Southampton¹ to the UK’s biggest autonomous robotics competition.

At the start of the academic year, teams are given a kit containing custom-made electronics at a Kickstart event, where the game for the year is announced. They then have until the Easter holiday to build fully-autonomous robots, which will compete against each other in the final competition. They are supported by volunteer mentors, and software to assist them in programming their robots is provided.

If you would like to find out more, please get in touch.

The SR Team

Student Robotics 2024 was Kickstarted on Saturday 21st October on our livestream. 30 teams from around the UK and Europe joined us as we introduced competitors to the competition, our Kits, and this year’s game! Teams will have six months to build, program, and test a fully autonomous robot, learning invaluable technical and soft skills along the way.

This year’s game, Final Frontier, plunges teams into an interstellar battle for dominance among four formidable civilizations, all vying for control of the cosmos. Teams must retrieve asteroids scattered throughout the asteroid field and transport them back to their home planet or, even better, their intergalactic spaceship currently under construction. However, the stakes are high, as within the confines of the asteroid belt lies The Egg, a cosmic time bomb that, if disturbed, could spell chaos. Teams must strategise, navigate the treacherous field, and decide whether to safeguard their own civilization or sabotage their rivals. With asteroids worth points, spaceships to manage, and The Egg lurking, the universe has never been this competitive. May the most ingenious civilization prevail in this high-stakes cosmic showdown! For complete details, including prizes up for grabs this year, you can consult our rulebook.

Over the next six months our teams will work to discover the best approach to designing and building their robots. With few constraints and help on hand, teams are free to tackle the problem at hand in any number of ways. Throughout the year teams will learn a wide variety of different technical skills, from programming for real world interactions, to building the hardware that makes up their robot. Competitors also gain invaluable practical experience working as part of a team, managing a real world engineering project, and producing their robot to a strict deadline.

Following on from last year’s success, we’re continuing to offer teams a set of Challenges to be completed throughout the competition year. These encourage teams to start work on their robots early and cover movement, mechanics, and vision. They may be approached in any order, and completing challenges before certain deadlines will earn the teams bonus league points. Full details are available in the rulebook and the deadlines are on our events page.

This year’s teams have already begun strategising their approaches, and we can’t wait to see their progress over the year!

If you weren’t able to attend Kickstart this year, or would like a recap, you can:

• watch our livestream where we explain the game and how this year’s competition will work.
• download the presentation in which we explain this year’s game and how the competition is running this year.
• download the microgames which are small activities designed to let you become familiar with the kit.
• If you’re a competitor, be sure to check out our Kickstarted, now what? guide for some next steps.
• If you’re a team supervisor, be sure to check out our guide on running a team for suggestions on how best to support your team.

Welcome to another blog post in our 101 series! Today, we’re going to delve into the brains of your robot - its code.

Teamwork Makes The Code Work

First and foremost, your robot’s code should never be a one-person show. Make sure more than one person has access to the codebase and understands it. This is crucial for two reasons: First, if the primary coder is unavailable for any reason, others can step in and keep things moving. Second, multiple perspectives can identify potential issues and generate creative solutions that a single mind might overlook. Think of it as having a built-in code review process!

The Pulse of Your Robot - The Control Loop

Your robot interacts with the environment in a continuous cycle of sensing and acting. It’s essential to have a solid control loop in your code where your robot senses its environment and then decides what to do next based on that information. This loop should be at the core of your robot’s operation, allowing it to adapt and react to its surroundings.

Backup Your Code: The Magic of Version Control Systems

Mistakes and accidents happen, files get lost, and computers crash. To protect your work from these unpredictable events, ensure you regularly back up your code. Better yet, use a Version Control System (VCS) like Git with GitHub. A VCS not only provides a backup of your code but also tracks changes, making it easy to identify when and where things might have gone wrong or right!

The Six T’s: Test, Test, Test, Test, Test, Test!

If there’s one golden rule in the world of coding, it’s this: test your code. Then, test it again, and keep testing! You can utilise our web interface to help you quickly iterate on your robot, by live streaming the logs and viewing the last captured image. You can also use the web interface to stop and restart the execution of your code. The more robust your testing, the more reliable your robot will be when it counts!

The Benefits of Friendly Competition

If you have a large enough team, consider developing competing implementations of certain features or systems. This can be an effective way to explore different solutions and spark innovation. You can then choose the best elements from each, or select the most efficient solution overall.

Embrace Imperfections: Sensor Noise

It’s crucial to remember that real-world data is often noisy and imperfect. Your sensors may pick up interference, or there could be slight variations in readings. Your code should be robust enough to handle this noise and still make effective decisions. Techniques such as sensor fusion or filtering (like taking an average of multiple readings) can be highly beneficial here.

The Power of Documentation

Our Docs are a goldmine of knowledge and should be your first port of call whenever you’re unsure about something. Much like a good textbook or reference guide, our Docs are designed to support you in understanding your robot better. From getting started with your robot kit, to understanding the APIs, to troubleshooting common issues; the Docs cover a broad spectrum of topics you may encounter.

Coding your robot can be a challenging yet rewarding experience. It’s where the magic happens, where the inert pieces of metal, wood, and circuitry come to life and engage with the world. We hope these tips and strategies will help you avoid common pitfalls and pave the way for your success in the Student Robotics competition. Remember, every stumble is an opportunity to learn and improve. Keep coding, keep testing, and most importantly, have fun!