We had a successful Kickstart on Saturday and it was great to see the excited teams getting familiar with our kit.

Our game this year, Caldera, challenges teams to control scoring zones with tokens while navigating an arena with raised platforms. Twenty-five scoring zones are arranged in a grid, varying in value from two points for each of the outermost 16, a ring of eight on a raised “volcano” worth seven points apiece, to the the central “caldera” which is worth thirty points.

Teams can claim one of the scoring zones by placing more of their tokens in it than any opposing team. Additionally the value of any scoring zone can be multiplied by careful position of the robot at the end of the match. Full details, including the prizes available this year, are available in the rulebook.

We’ve already seen the teams come up with some innovative solutions and it’s going to be interesting to see how they develop.

All competitors should now have user accounts for our website. This includes our IDE for teams to write their code in. This also includes our forums which are a great place to brainstorm with other teams and discuss any problems which you run into.

(See our docs if you are not able to log in.)

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

• The presentation in which we explain this year’s game and how the competition is running this year.
• The microgames which are small activities designed to let you become familiar with the Student Robotics kit.

Kickstart details for SR2019 have been announced and the first teams have been confirmed.

Kickstart is the event which kicks off a competition year, where the game will be announced and robotics kits will be handed out to the teams. This year the kickstart event will be on the 10th November 2018.

The venues for Student Robotics 2019 kickstart are:

• The University of Southampton
• Thread’s offices in Whitechapel, London

If you’ve entered a team already, you’ll be hearing from us soon with confirmation of your place and which kickstart has space for you. Select your kickstart from the list above to see full details, including directions and arrival instructions.

If you are unable to attend Kickstart, please let us know so we can arrange another way to get you your kit.

We’re excited to announce the 2019 Student Robotics competition!

After a year’s hiatus during which we’ve worked to ensure that Student Robotics will be more scalable and sustainable for the future, we’re excited to announce the continuation of the annual competition.

In order to allow the core team of volunteers to focus on delivering a high quality programme while requiring far fewer resources than before, this year’s competition will be slightly smaller than previous years. We expect to be able to increase the size of the competition again in the future.

As before, the competition cycle will start with a number of concurrent kickstart events at which the game will be announced and the kits handed out to teams.

This year kickstart will be on Saturday 10th November in two locations. One at the University of Southampton, and the second in London. The exact locations will be confirmed in the next couple of weeks, however the events will run from around 10am, and finish some time before 5pm.

The competition will culminate around April at the University of Southampton (exact dates will be announced at kickstart). Teams will spend two days finessing and testing their robots as they compete first through a league stage and then a seeded knockout stage.

Rising to the top of the knockout stages is not the only way to impress the judges though; prizes will be available in a number of other categories to be announced at kickstart.

If you would like a chance to compete in Student Robotics 2019, please fill in the entry form with the required information. All further emails about SR2019 will be sent to the address you provide there. Places will be allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, and the final date for applications will be 26th October.