Students' robot wins soccer championship

Last month, students competed in a golf tournament with their bots.

Robots seem to have taken over sports tournaments in schools as a group of students have just won first place in a 'Robo Soccer' championship.
Last month, students competed in a golf tournament with their bots.
This time, pupils from GEMS Our Own English High School in Dubai built robots that scored goals in a soccer game. The team's three members won a 50 per cent scholarship to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), which organised the championship.
George Mathew Paul, a student from the winning group, said: "There were 14 schools registered for the event. Our school was represented by three robotic aficionados - Neil Ryan, Kishore Kumar and myself. I am thankful to RIT and my robotics coordinator for giving us this opportunity to explore the world of robots. It was a one-of-a-kind event, indeed - robots on the soccer field. It is an indication of what the world is set to become, where AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning will rule the roost."
Their machine was called 'CAP Robo', which was made up of 'Nxt and Mindstorm EV3 Lego parts'.
The students were tasked to build a robot that could seek the soccer ball that emitted infrared rays and place it successfully into the goal post.
The soccer field had three rings - white, black and red. The white one was the soccer playing area; black for the goal post; and red for the 'no robot' zone.
"Some of the functions it had was that once the robot was placed on the soccer field, it remained idle until the jury triggered a loud beep. After catching the ball, the robot searched for the black ring using its color sensor. It then placed the ball anywhere over the black ring, and triggered a beep to identify task completion (goal)," Mathew said.
"Each round had five minutes and the winner was the robot that scored the maximum goals. CAP Robo, a sturdy, lightweight ace footballer bot went all the way to the finals, decimating every opponent along the way to win 2019 RIT Soccer tournament."
How CAP Robo won
>Placed on soccer field
>Remained idle until the jury triggered a loud beep
>After catching the ball, it searched for the black goal using its colour sensor
>Programmed to place the ball anywhere over the black ring
>Triggered a beep after scoring a goal
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com