We’re excited to announce that registration for the 2024 season of Student
Robotics is now open!
Based in the UK, Student Robotics challenges teams of 16 to 19 year-olds to
design, build and program fully autonomous robots to compete in our annual
competition. Teams will have just six months to engineer their creations. As
well as supplying teams with a kit, which they can use as a framework for their
robot, we mentor the teams over this period. Thanks to the generosity of our
sponsors, we provide all of this to our teams at no cost.
The competition cycle will start with a live streamed
Kickstart event on our YouTube Channel. During the event the game
and the structure of the competition will be announced and kits handed
out to teams.
The competition year will culminate in an in-person competition over two days in
around Easter 2024, which will see the robots compete through a league stage and
a seeded knockout. As usual the prizes will recognise not only the teams which
come top in the knockouts, but also those who excel in other ways.
Details of the game and prizes will be revealed at Kickstart. Details of the
Kickstart and competition events will be published when they are available.
We expect to confirm places towards the end of September.
If you would like a chance to compete in Student Robotics 2024,
please fill in the entry form with the required information.
Places are limited, so sign up soon to avoid disappointment.
Greed required our team’s robots to capture tokens from their opponents and place them in their scoring zone. With Bronze, Silver, and Gold tokens, each worth a different number of game points, teams had to think carefully about their optimum strategy.
To help teams locate the tokens there were 2D barcode style markers attached that our computer vision library could detect. However, each of the markers identified themselves as exactly the same, so teams had to use other sensors to detect which type of token is which. Bronze and Silver tokens were the same size but the Silver tokens weighed 300g more, and Gold tokens were larger than both Bronze and Silver. Teams were scored at the end of the match for collecting the most points.
Virtual Competition
The first part of our league this year was a virtual competition, broadcast live from Southampton in March. Across twenty matches, teams competed in a simulated version of the main competition, testing their coding skills against one another. The day was handily won by Haberdashers’ College, coming 1st in all four of their matches.
League Matches
At the in person event, teams participated in a further 70 league matches, showcasing a diverse range of robot designs and strategies. The robots displayed impressive agility, precision, and ingenuity, as they navigated the arena to capture tokens and outmanoeuvre their opponents. Team’s had varying designs from suction systems, lifting mechanisms, and even a flywheel designed to launch tokens.
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
Beginning of the SR2023 Final
In the nail-biting final, Haberdashers’ School faced off against Abingdon School, Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf, and Harris Westminster Sixth Form. Harris Westminster Sixth Form managed to successfully grab Haberdashers’ gold token, but were not able to get it solely back to their own scoring zone. Whilst this was happening, Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf tried to grab a gold token with their arms, but missed slightly and instead grabbed the Abingdon School robot, slowly pulling on the robot and some of its wires for the rest of the match! At the same time, the Haberdashers’ robot slowly but steadily collected bronze and silver tokens and deposited them in their zone, before going back and getting more. The teams displayed exceptional skill and teamwork, and after a fierce battle, Haberdashers’ School emerged victorious, claiming the first-place title in Student Robotics 2023.
Results
Winner: HAB – Haberdashers’ School
2nd place: ABS – Abingdon School
3rd place: MAI – Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf
Committee award: QMC – Queen Mary’s College (award sponsored by University of Southampton ECS)
Challenges award: QMC – Queen Mary’s College (award sponsored by Adventurous Machines)
After a close match in the final, Haberdashers’ School managed to beat their opponents and win the Student Robotics 2023 competition, closely followed by Abingdon School in second and Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf in third.
The Committee 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 committee award was given to Queen Mary’s College for their consistent excellence in all their matches. Their robot reliably and repeatedly executed their strategy to great success.
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 Sherborne School with their robot which drove over the tokens enclosing them within the robot before returning to their scoring zone.
Team Haberdashers' School with their “Knight Bus” theme
We award the Robot and Team Image Award to the team that presents themselves in the most outstanding way. This year, our teams rose to the challenge, and we saw some fantastic themes! We loved Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf’s Raspberry Pi theme, but we decided to give the Robot and Team Image award to Haberdashers’ School for their brilliant “Knight Bus” theme. All team members dressed as wizards and their robot sported a number plate and windows with images of the team members looking out.
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 (for the second year in a row!) of the Online Presence Award is Hampton School and Lady Eleanor Holles School for their consistent and high-quality posts.
Check out the rulebook for all the details on the awards we give.
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.
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 is independent from the University of Southampton. ↩
The Computer Science and Engineering fields have large gender imbalances,
something we see in the demographics of our own competitors. This needs to be
tackled and we’re working to encourage more women and non-binary individuals to
get involved with engineering in our friendly and inclusive environment. This
Women in STEM day, we are looking back at what a few of our competitors had to
say about competing in Student Robotics 2022.
Pippa Gallard
Pippa, a Y12 student from Calday Grange Grammar School, switched schools for
sixth form in order to study a wider range of STEM subjects. She studies
Computer Science, Maths, and Electronics at A Level.
I was very excited at the opportunity of joining our school’s robotics club
and for the chance to put my enthusiasm for coding and engineering into
practice. I’ve always been enthusiastic to study and work in STEM fields but
my participation in Student Robotics has really cemented my goal to study
Computer Science or Mechatronics at University.
Gugu Matsoni
Gugu, a Y12 student from Eltham College, studies Art, Maths, and Physics at A
Level. She plans to study Game Design at University.
I got involved with the Robotics club when my teacher promoted it at college.
I’m the only girl in the team but have been fully involved in the design and
engineering of our robot. Being involved has improved my problem solving
skills and helped me to think outside of the box when tackling tricky
problems. Taking part in Student Robotics has also helped me be more creative.
Deniz Yurtseven
Deniz, a Y12 student from Swakeleys School for Girls, studies Sociology,
Economics, Business, and Computer Science.
Getting involved with the robotics club has resulted in me making new friends.
We meet at least twice a week, making it a great social activity. My
involvement in Student Robotics has increased my interest in Computer Science
and I am now considering studying something like Computer Forensics at
university.
Tamsin Howe
Tamsin, a Y12 student from The College of Richard Collyer, studies Computer
Science, Maths, and Physics.
I’ve always loved computer science and saw the robotics club as an opportunity
to apply my enthusiasm into something interesting. I’ve learned a lot about
robots and seeing our robot actually do things is really exciting. I plan to
study Computer Science at University.
Student Robotics is completely free to enter and provides exciting real world
engineering challenges for students aged 16-19. If you’re interested in taking
part, you can find out more on our Compete page. We rely on a team of
talented volunteers to support the competition and kit development. If you’re
interested in becoming a volunteer, you can find more information and sign up on
our Volunteer page.
