The annual Student Robotics KickStart is coming up this Saturday! It is with this event that SR2012 begins. Teams from around the country will be attending to meet other competitors, discover this year’s game, and learn about the challenges ahead of them.

Information for registered teams:

KickStart will be happening on Saturday the 24th of September — please aim to arrive at 10:00. We’ll be starting in Building 32 on the University of Southampton’s Highfield Campus, please see the campus map (pdf) and this street map, showing the location of the campus. The day will finish at around 16:30, and we will be handing out kit then. This will include 2m aluminium L-sections, so please be sure you can transport them.

The schedule for the day is as follows:

• 10:00 - Arrival
• 10:30 - Introductory talk, introduction to the game etc
• 11:00 - Mini-game and competition
• 12:50 - Break for lunch
• 14:00 - Talk: Mechanics
• 14:30 - Talk: Electronics
• 15:00 - Short break, with biscuits and tea
• 15:20 - Talk: Software
• 15:50 - Talk: Teamwork and organisation
• 16:20 - Kit collection

We’ll be putting out signs indicating places to park on campus. Unfortunately, we cannot provide food — we recommend either bringing your own lunch or visiting one of the shops around and about the campus.

We very much hope to see you there!

The SR Team

Student Robotics 2011 is over! After much hard work, hacking, and bodging, fifteen teams from thirteen UK schools across five counties, and two countries came together to pit their robotic creations in a titanic battle of wits.

Each team had to build a robot that could navigate a course littered with other robots and red beans cans which could be collected to gain points. Further points could be scored by completing sections of the course, and extra points were available to robots that made it over the ramp. The robots used a number of sensing mechanisms, from the provided vision system (which was impressively used for more than just looking forwards) to various implementations of distance sensors.

The day comprised a gruelling 32 match league stage provided seeding for the later knock-out stage that would determine the winners of Student Robotics 2011. Congratulations to all the competitors, whatever place achieved, we hope that you’ve all had fun & learnt something along the way.

Results

For full details on the awards, please see the rulebook.

Congratulations to the team from Bishop Wordsworth School for some impressively high scores, topping the list at 40 points in single match.

Media

For the first time the competition received real-time coverage from a live video feed and a twitter stream. We were also covered in a piece in the Southern Daily Echo, and ECS News among other places. Images from the event are available in the sr2011 group on Flickr.

The SR Team

There’s less than a week to go to the competition, and we’re as excited as we are busy preparing the biggest and best Student Robotics Competition to date.

The competition’s taking place at The Cube, Level 2, SUSU Building 42, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton. Here’s the schedule:

Day 1 - Saturday 9th April, Tinkering Day

This day is optional but it is highly recommended that you attend as there will be very little time for tinkering on the actual competition day.

Day 2 - Sunday 10th April, Competition Day

Competition matches last 3 minutes, with a new match starting every 7 minutes.

Please remember to bring your Media Consent Forms on this day, otherwise we reserve the right to refuse entry into the competition.

We look forward to seeing you there, good luck, and may the best robot win!

The SR Team