SR(A)WN

SR2015 Issue 03

Mon, 23 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 3

This is the third issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings-on across SR. This is a bit of an experiment, so if you have feedback or think we've missed something, feel free to reply to this thread. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Since exams are now over, Peter has resumed his "Learning by doings" idea, using Google Hangouts to perform tasks along with other blueshirts. Ideas for topics of these doings would be welcome. [0]
Peter has created Trac pages about the new competition software (that was used at the 2014 competition). [1]
Our treasurers sent out the cheques covering SR2014 expenses went to volunteers and teams recently.
Certificates were organised and sent out by Howard.
Participant stats for SR2014 were added to Trac by Rob. [2]
Jon Bartlett is finalising the child protection policy-related documents. [3]
Murray has posted the results of last weeks doing, reviews of the current game ideas. [4]
Alistair has been working on revising the regulations in the game rules to condense them down and make them clearer. [5]
Merging competition and development robot modes was briefly discussed and the conclusion was that the modes will be kept separate. The discussion, however, has led to the creation of a Trac page. [6]
Andy Busse has requested that volunteers who are interesting in taking part in the summer school should contact him. [7]
Rob is making progress on the charity situation. [8]
Comments that various people have made about the 2014 competition have been collated into a Trac page. [9]

The previous issue can be found here. [10]

SR2015 Issue 02

Wed, 02 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 4

This is the fourth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings-on across SR. This is a bit of an experiment, so if you have feedback or think we've missed something, feel free to reply to this thread. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Two internships are running over the summer. Giorgos Karatziolas will be working on making a battery fuel gauge [0] and Tom Leese will be working on the interface on the tablets as part of the new SR2015 kit (list post to come shortly).
Certificates have definitely been sent out now [1].
The game submission deadline is almost with us: discussion ends on the 4th and voting on the 9th [2]. Anyone who has a game submission should take the time to clarify the final version [3] of their game on the list.
Smallpeice is taking place in the last week of July and any extra volunteers would be helpful.
The steering minutes from the latest committee meeting (23rd July) have been placed into Git [4]. Key points to take away include: aiming for 81 teams and schools like the idea of having to travel to get to a kickstart to encourage the students.
Signing up exists in some form or other, and discussion is ongoing [5].
Jeremy has posted the teacher feedback he has received [6], and that feedback is generally very good.
Sam has performed some analysis on the competition server logs and performed some extra benchmarking to produce a report [7].
Jeremy has reported that a line of code with 17,000 characters causes pylint 0.26 to hang [8], solutions include enforcing a line-length limit or simply updating pylint.

Thanks to Lilafisch, Tyler Ward and Tom Leese for contributing. The previous issue can be found here [9].

[0] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/srobo-devel/_GiVdXIvGO4/discussion

[1] https://groups.google.com/d/msg/srobo/f8ps8rKfeE0/IeYUpzcAuWcJ

[2] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/srobo-game/icdyUesc5XU/discussion

[3] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/srobo-game/YHTqEKftaS0/discussion

[4] https://www.studentrobotics.org/cgit/steering-minutes.git/tree/2013-2014/2014-06-23/minutes.txt

[5] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/srobo/VAfEPOmplOY/discussion

[6] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/srobo/t9gVNWYxF6o/discussion

[7] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/srobo/IeUe20rdnwY/discussion

[8] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/srobo-devel/s03XxFcpgCA/discussion

[9] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/srobo/f8ps8rKfeE0/discussion

SR2015 Issue 05

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 5

This is the fifth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings-on across SR. This is a bit of an experiment, so if you have feedback or think we've missed something, feel free to reply to this thread. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

SR2015 Issue 08

Thu, 09 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 8

This is the eighth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings-on across SR. If you have feedback or think we've missed something, feel free to reply to this thread. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

53 teams are now signed up for the competition; two teams have unfortunately dropped out already.
Creation of accounts before Kickstart has worked out well.
The server has been moved over to a more powerful Linode VPS called 'saffron' — Rob won a doughnut for correctly guessing the server naming scheme, which was Firefly!
A discussion on electrical safety has been started on the list and progress will continue in a trac ticket.
Student Robotics was mentioned in a recently edition of The Daily Telegraph.
Bristol and Southampton held their Newbie Doings for this year:
- Southampton: We had cake! To make entry to mentoring easier we are trying a new concept: assign personal tutor to newbie.
- Bristol: Large turnout at the newbie Doing.
Peter proposed a number of ways to get better publicity, including organising the news better.
First cuts of the videos produced by Olly during Smallpeice are available at their respective trac tickets: State Machines, Inputs, Program Design and Debugging.
SR testing: Southampton spent the last doings developing test scripts for cameras, motor boards and Ruggeduinos; these scripts are now all functioning and testing with them will finish soon.
Batteries are being tested and recharged ready for shipping.
Assembly of new boards into cases has started in Oxford.
Alistair, Giorgos and Lilafisch are getting the micro games finished and Giorgos will announce a doing for assembling the bits that need to go to the different Kickstarts, instructions for blueshirts are being written.
Chris K is making progress on the rules, please help by reviewing.
The trac milestone for Kickstart is rather empty, please help by filling in what is missing!

Thanks to everyone who turned up at the doing yesterday for contributing (apologies for being unable to name people directly). The previous issue can be found here.

SR2015 Issue 09

Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 9

This is the ninth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings-on across SR. If you have feedback or think we've missed something, feel free to reply to this thread. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

AAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH Kickstart tomorrow!

The IDE has been updated for the new kit.
Kit for this year has been finished and was packed shipped to Kickstarts.
The rules are live and ready for shipping.
The team list was finalised and there is a recruitment situation report available.
The software running on the brain board has been pushed to git.
Saffron server monitoring has been re-enabled.
The tablet interface exists and has been testing with the new kit.
Epic Vault Doing of much labelling.
Lots of kit testing and all the kit boxes have been packed.
A substantial amount of documentation has been written for SR2015, although there is plenty that could be improved.
London Kickstart is happening - volunteers should arrive before 09:50.
Southampton Kickstart is happening - arrive at 08:00 at building 32 and bring kettle if convenient.
Bristol Kickstart is happening.
Batteries were unable to be shipped with the pallet so they are being transported separately.
Screwdrivers and wire-stripper shipping has occurred and have definitely arrived in Southampton.
The videos Olly has been producing have been put on hiatus due to unfortunate circumstances.
Account creation is ongoing.

Thanks to Harry Cutts, Freddie Nash, Tom Leese, Alistair Lynn, Tyler Ward and Andy Barrett-Sprot for working on this issue. Previous issue can be found here.

SR2015 Issue 11

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN — 11 (Tom's Birthday) (Happy birthday!)

This is the eleventh issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings-on across SR. If you have feedback or think we've missed something, feel free to reply to this thread. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

The Trac wiki was cleaned and brought up to date at a recent Southampton doing.
Python tools port is still happening and testing the new tools would be very helpful.
Revision 2 of the rules has been shipped.
Tech days have been announced for both Southampton and Bristol.
srweb has been updated to use Smarty 3.
Alistair put together a script to watch Gerrit and update trac tickets when they get fixed in commits following standard fix message convention.
Fritter is now live and running in production. Written by Peter, it enables a large number of emails to be sent out without appearing as spam.
An improved Child Protection policy has been outlined and desperately requires feedback.
The towel-throws mechanism is still under discussion on the srobo-game list. No resolution is forthcoming, more input would be appreciated.
The steering committee will be meeting this December to discuss Student Robotics becoming a charity.
The assembly of the Kit is now documented in the Docs and an assembly video.
There is now a tool to generate Trac tickets for yearly recurring tasks. This has now been used to generate the Trac tickets for the 2015 competition.
We are starting to collect mentoring times for all the teams, which are documented on the Teams page on Trac.

Team Updates:

QMC broke a power board.
There are 18 teams who have set their team status on the website.
CCR are looking at using an I2C motor controller.

Thanks to Tom Leese, Giorgos Karatziolas, Freddie Nash, lilafisch, and Alistair Lynn for contributing. The previous issue can be found here.

SR2015 Issue 12

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 12

This is the twelfth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Internal Updates:

Multiple tech days happened, with some interesting results—no teams turned up at Southampton. Attendance has started to be recorded as a result of this.
Student Robotics was shown off at Southampton to prospective students.
An update on the charity situation was posted. The charity application has been submitted and there has been a large objection to this, leading to two committee members announcing that they will resign.
Team QMC were given a new power board.
Numerous purchasing tickets were closed. [^0]
Work on the tools continues and should be ready for public testing shortly.
Some of the camera documentation has been discovered to be wrong.
Duplicate asset codes were discovered in the inventory.
A decision on how to proceed in terms of product searching in the tools has yet to be made.
An update on team account creation was posted.
An issue in the power board relating to I2C has been fixed.
Output current reading measurements have been taken.
An update to the rules fixing references to SR2014 has been uploaded.

Team Updates:

HRS have been experiencing problems with the current limit on the power board.
HRS may have a problem with their camera. They discovered that they could not take photos at certain resolutions.
CLY have been getting a mysterious beeping noise.

Thanks to Tom Leese, Tyler Ward and Alistair Lynn for working on this issue. The previous issue can be found here.

[^0] See tickets closed on 6th December in the timeline.

SR2015 Issue 13

Wed, 14 Jan 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 13

This is the thirteenth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Internal updates:

Committee steering elections are coming up. Applicants for roles must do so via the mailing list by 26th January. Steering committee roles on Trac have been updated.
Various patches to srweb which move submodules to Puppet have been updated and require reviewing.
Jekyll is being worked on.
Further updates to the power board have been worked on.
Flag design and prototyping for SR2015 has happened.
The improvements to the tools have reached feature completion. People should upgrade to check their workflow hasn't been broken.
More responses relating to charity objections have been posted.

Team updates:

More teams have been asking questions about the mascots on the top of the flags.

Thanks to Tom Leese, Andrew Barrett-Sprot, Samson Danziger and Henry Kennedy for working on this issue. The previous issue can be found here.

SR2015 Issue 14

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 14

This is the fourteenth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Internal updates:

Mentoring in Southampton has started, a bit later than usually though.
The first Tech Day in Munich happened at MAI, who have built an arena for testing.
Competition Software now runs on Python 3 and uses Setuptools for installation.
SRBot has been replaced by Willie.
Sign-ups for a committee position have now closed.
Various updates to Southampton venue ideas for the competition have happened.
There is a date hold on Newbury Racecourse as a competition venue.
The first Volunteer Activity Day is happening this week.
A summary of the possible results from the committee vote has been posted.

Committee Vote:

The following people have applied for positions on the committee:

Community: Tom Leese
Engineering: Rich Barlow, Peter Law
Events: Lilafisch, Sam Phippen
Public Interaction: Harry Cutts
Schools & Mentoring: Jon Bartlett, Jeremy Morse
Sponsor Interaction: Andy Busse, Rob Spanton

Team updates:

Peter Symonds https://pscrobotics.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/cheeky-build-photo/
QMC http://teamqmc.esy.es/uncategorized/update-2112015/
Collyer's http://collyersstudentrobotics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/keeping-everything-clean-and-tidy.html
Cornwall College Saltash http://ccsrobotics.over-blog.com/2015/01/week-8-recapping-the-code.html
Brockenhurst have a robot base and a good idea of how they're going to build the rest of it.
Taunton do not have a robot yet, but they have been prototyping on last year's robot.
Bishop Wordsworth School have not assembled a robot, but they have started programming.
South Wilts Grammar School have a robot base with wheels and lots of code.

First time mentor, Andy Barrett-Sprot, says "I expected it to be more like teaching, but it was more about supporting the teams, I think that's a good idea because it doesn't waste their time.".

Thanks to Tom Leese, Alistair Lynn, Lilafisch and Murray Colpman for working on this issue. The previous issue can be found here.

SR2015 Issue 15

Wed, 11 Feb 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 15

This is the fifteenth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Internal Updates

A hangout to discuss the competition software occurred, with various outcomes. Tickets have been created and anyone can feel free to pick up any task. Already bugs and features are being submitted to Gerrit and merged in.
Bristol hosted its second tech day—33 competitors turned up.
Part of the 'How to Help' page on the website has been rewritten to make it more readable.
Steering committee vote happened and the results have been published.
A discussion tinker time at the competition has been initiated and is on going.
Funding has been received from Motorola.
The first Volunteer Activity Day happened and was a great success.
Investigations into whether keeping Git objects in a database is any better for the IDE.
Research into improved match scheduling at the competition has happened.
A private PyPI has been set up to put any Pip and Setuptools based Python projects we have.
A commit to merge the new tools branch back into the tools has been submitted to Gerrit.
The power board now has firmware capable of playing sounds via the on board piezo.

Steering Committee Results

Community: Tom Leese
Engineering: Richard Barlow
Events: Sam Phippen
Public Interaction: Harry Cutts
Schools and Mentoring: Jeremy Morse
Sponsorship: Rob Spanton

Team Updates

Peter Symonds https://pscrobotics.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/cheeky-build-photo/
QMC http://teamqmc.esy.es/uncategorized/update-2112015/
Collyer's http://collyersstudentrobotics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/keeping-everything-clean-and-tidy.html
Cornwall College Saltash http://ccsrobotics.over-blog.com/2015/01/week-8-recapping-the-code.html
KES are still having problems with their kit. Looks like the image wasn't the problem in the end and instead their power board may be faulty.

Thanks to Tom Leese for working on this issue. The previous issue can be found [here][list-previous-issue].

SR2015 Issue 16

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 16

This is the sixteenth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Internal Updates

The competition dates have been finalised and announced. It is happening on 25th and 26th April at Newbury Racecourse (set-up day on 24th).
Tech Days in Southampton, Bristol, and Didcot/Oxford have happened.
Various issues with SRComp have been fixed and the updated version is ready to be deployed.
Some flags were created using facilities at Southampton for the Tech Days. Andy Barrett-Sprot and Freddie Nash are currently in the process of writing a manufacturing tutorial for them.
Giorgos is working on getting the piezoelectric speaker in the power board controllable from user code.
Murray is working on a kiosk system to allow webpages to quickly be displayed on kiosks around the venue (including arena displays, league tables, etc.) and easily changed remotely.
Peter has (re?)surrected the idea of having properly defined contacts for each branch.
Tom and others [are working on] a handbook for volunteers, focusing on mentoring but also covering development. Contact Tom off-list if you want to be involved.

Team Updates

KDE have been given a replacement power board.
RHY have dropped out.
HRS's power board has been updated to the newer firmware to solve the current limit problem.

Thanks to Tom Leese and Murray Colpman for working on this issue. The previous issue can be found here.

SR2015 Issue 17

Wed, 11 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 17

This is the seventeenth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

It's only 45 days until the competition!

Internal Updates

The volunteer form for the competition has been released. If you would like to come to the competition, please fill out the volunteer sign up form.
Various fixes and improvements to SRComp have occurred. A dry run/test day will be happening later this month and if you would like to have your voice heard on what date it happens, please fill out the SRComp Dry Run doodle poll.
After some flags were created in Southampton, pictures of them have been placed on Trac.

Team Updates

Uppingham School (UPP) are experiencing some servo board connection problems.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2015 Issue 18

Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 18

This is the eighteenth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

It's only 31 days until the competition, make sure you've signed up to volunteer!

Internal Updates

Due to last minute ECS changes, the Southampton Vault has been moved to a new location in the Level 4 Seminar Room in Mountbatten.
The layout for the competition has been decided, and it will basically be the same as last years.
A comprehensive page containing tasks suitable for beginners has been created.
Attendance has been updated after the Tech Days on the 14th March.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2015 Issue 19

Wed, 08 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 19

This is the nineteenth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

It's only 17 days until the competition, make sure you've signed up to volunteer!

Internal Updates

The venue map has been published.
Score entry forms have been designed.
The competition day schedule has been decided and published on the website.
An SRComp Testing day happened and was generally a success. A few issues were discovered, and tickets have been opened for them.
General competition preparations are continuing, and the next two doings at Southampton will be related to this.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2015 Issue 20

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2015 — 20

This is the twentieth issue of the Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

It's only 3 days until the competition! Everyone volunteering at the competition should have received their role assignment and hotel/travel information.

Internal Updates

Flags were built in Southampton. Adornments have also been bought and will be transported to the competition.
Everything from Southampton has gone up to Newbury in preparation for the competition.
Robot markers have been updated for this year's competition.
A number of SRComp and SRWeb related patches have been submitted and merged improving the website throughout the competition.

Team Updates

A number of teams have unfortunately dropped out, putting the total number of drop outs at 10 currently.

We look forward to seeing many of you at the competition this weekend.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 01

Wed, 06 May 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 1

This is the first issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Updates

The 2015 competition happened and it was awesome, congratulations go to the winners and thanks to all the volunteers who helped out on the day—we hope to see you next year! Photos of the competition are being posted to Flickr.
A number of volunteers have posted their opinions of how this year’s competition went.
A “News & Events” mailing list has been created to coincide with the first fortnightly newsletter of the 2016 year. The mailing list will contain information regarding upcoming events and related news which I would recommend any volunteer subscribe to.
Various updates to the tools have been merged. Changes include support for Python 3, virtual environments and a new ‘sr inv-history’ tool.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 02

Wed, 20 May 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 2

This is the second issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

The typical lull after the storm that is the Student Robotics competition has lead to not an enormous amount happening over the last two weeks. Nevertheless...!

If you have any remaining receipts from SR2015, make sure you submit them by the 1st June to ensure you get your money back.
A ticket to start off some discussion about how we write documentation has been opened.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 03

Wed, 03 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 3

This is the third issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Positions for the steering committee have opened up following a number of planned resignations. Make sure you get your nominations in by the end of Friday (55th June).
There are a number of no-show schools who have yet to return their kit. They need chasing after and any help with that would be appreciated.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 04

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 4

This is the fourth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Results from the latest committee elections have been announced with all roles filled except for Public Interaction. If you would like to go for that role, please put your name forward by the end of this coming Sunday.
A vote on whether Student Robotics should become a charity has been opened. Please take an opportunity to read through the proposed constitution and vote.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 05

Wed, 01 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 5

This is the fifth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

The community has voted for Student Robotics becoming a charity.
Elections are open for the position of Public Interaction in the steering committee.
Work on the volunteer handbook has continued and would appreciated receiving reviews.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 06

Wed, 15 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 6

This is the sixth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

James Thompson has won the position of Public Interaction on the steering committee.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 07

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 7

This is the seventh issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

The participant stats have been updated to include details on SR2015.
A ‘Computing and Microelectronics’ course run by the Smallpeice Trust and utilising Student Robotics kit is under way this week.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 08

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 8

This is the eighth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 09

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 9

This is the ninth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Student Robotics has been successfully registered as a charity.
There is a possibility of some media opportunities happening with the BBC in the near future and any related media items are being collated.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 10

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 10

This is the tenth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

The list of teams who have put their names down for SR2016 is available on Trac.
Doings in Southampton have started up again with a large range of activities planned.
The broadcast date for Student Robotics on BBC Breakfast has been announced at the 18th September.
Some data visualisations on what kinds of schools we get at the competition has been put together.
Benchmarking of the website has been happening in relation to the BBC Breakfast event.
In Southampton, preparations for fresher recruitment has started.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 11

Wed, 23 Sep 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 11

This is the eleventh issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

We were featured on BBC Breakfast!
A map of all the teams taking part in SR2016 has been produced.
There are a number of improvements to the website that would be good if they could happen before Kickstart.
The 7th November has been announced as the date for Kickstart, this should make its way to the website.
Today there will be a doing in Southampton to prepare for fresher recruitment.
Our server is now running Fedora 22.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 12

Wed, 21 Oct 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 12

17 days to Kickstart!

Future is now!

This is the twelfth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

The organisation structure for Kickstart has been announced and all assets have been transferred to the charity.
Power boards and batteries have been taken to Oxford for testing.
A beep function has been added to the power board Python API.
An outline has been put together for the Kickstart microgames.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 13

Wed, 04 Nov 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 13

3 days to Kickstart!

This is the thirteenth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

The kit has been packed and distributed to the various Kickstart locations. Thanks go to everyone who helped with this.
The date for the first Bristol tech day has been added to the website.
The dates for the Southampton tech days and the first Oxford tech day will be on the website shortly.
The location of the London Kickstart had to be changed at the last minute.
An Oxford Outreach Meetup event is happening in early December for those who are interested.
The Southampton branch is now affiliated with the University of Southampton's Students Union.
Discussion of this year's game continues in the private game mailing list.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.  "10 things are infinite in this world, human stupidity, and binary numbers...."

SR2016 Issue 14

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 14

This is the fourteenth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

An interactive 3D token website has been created.
Kickstart happened and was very successful! Thanks go to everyone who helped and we hope you enjoyed the day.
There are plans for an activity day in place and we're looking for people to submit what day they would like best.
There was a bug in the naming of the markers in the robot code which has been fixed and shipped.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 15

Wed, 02 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 15

This is the fifteenth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

LHS and MEA have been dropped out.
WGS have been given a position.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 16

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 16

This is the sixteenth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Apologies for the delay from the last newsletter, the Christmas break combined with exams has given us a break without reconvening

Christmas and new year happened!
Mentors have been allocated in Southampton, and will start mentoring their teams soon!
The Student Robotics Volunteer activity day 2016 has been announced, and there is a doodle poll to find the most convenient date.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 17

Wed, 03 Feb 2016 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 17

This is the seventeenth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

George Field has created a token/arena cheatsheet to help competitors.
The date for the activity day has been announced as the 13th February.
An email about the London tech day has been sent out to teams, and as a consequence to this, there has already been two sign-ups for the tech day in Southampton.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 18

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 18

This is the eighteenth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

A first draft of the Ops Manual has been published on the mailing list.
An Activity Day happened in Southampton and some people have spoken about it.
A list of teams on Twitter has been compiled.
An initial form for announcing interest to helping at the competition has been released.
The date and location for the competition has been announced as the 30th April at Newbury Racecourse.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 19

Thu, 03 Mar 2016 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 19

This is the nineteenth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Some more videos have been created. Notably one for how to use the tablet.
The Tech Day in Southampton last Saturday was very successful. The teams worked on their robots and made the most of the help offered.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 20

Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 20

This is the twentieth issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

The Southampton Branch has hosted an AGM today, the results of which have been published in this blog post.
Some discussion about whether robots can perform actions before start signal has happened.
BDF would like some electronics help, if you're in the Bedford area, it would be good to let us know.
Peter has started the ball rolling on both the scoresheet design and the competition software for SR2016, the latter of which he's given a deadline for modifications of the weekend of the 16th April.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 21

Wed, 30 Mar 2016 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 21

This is the twenty first issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

One month to go until the competition!

Jeremy has requested help dealing with media consent forms. He may have enough volunteers now although if you are up for it, it would be good to let him know.
Some reflection on the well-received tech day that happened in Southampton on the 19th March has been posted.
Discussion on how mock arenas could be built in the future has been started.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2016 Issue 22

Wed, 27 Apr 2016 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2016 — 22

This is the twenty second issue of the 2016 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Only two days to go until the competition!

Media consent forms have been processed by a number of volunteers.
Kit stored in Southampton has been moved to Newbury for the competition.
Work has been done on improving the Student Robotics competition software to suit the next competition.
The committee has created a tree of links to documents for the operations manual for all documentation in the future.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2017 Issue 03

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2017 -- 3

This is the third issue of the 2017 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Headlines

Games for next year's competition have started to be suggested. If you have access to the thread feel free to contribute your ideas.
It has been a slow (almost) week at Student Robotics.
Jimmy Thompson has been working on a new Style Guide for the logo, and an entirely new website, and has asked for feedback in the mailing list.
There has been continued discussion about whether the new private slack group should allow competitors to join.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2017 Issue 06

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 00:00:00 -0000

SR(A)WN 2017 -- 6

This is the sixth issue of the 2017 Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter, a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones which we believe could do with extra hands. An absence of emboldening does not necessarily mean that everything is done.

Headlines

Kickstart was held in Southampton, Oxford, and Bristol.
The Game for this year's competition has been announced at kickstart. (Easy as ABC)
A problem with the tablets means that some tablets have no shortcut to their robot's web interface, leading to confusion among teams.
There is a mentor sign up form which potential mentors should fill in to get information on mentoring.
GDC has claimed first movement, it is currently unclear if they are a rookie team.

Minor Headlines

The volunteers in Southampton have permanently moved to The SR Slack for all communications.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this issue together. If you would like, you can also read the previous issue.

SR2021 Issue 01

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0000

The Student Robotics (Almost) Weekly Newsletter is a (roughly) fortnightly newsletter which summarises the goings‐on across Student Robotics. Emboldened items are ones for which additional help has been requested.

Headlines

SR(A)WN is back for SR2021!

After a 1417 day hiatus, SR(A)WN is back to keep you updated on news and developments within Student Robotics. (Still almost weekly, right?)

Keep up with SR(A)WN:

Join the #srawn channel on Slack recommended
Join the srawn mailing list on Google Groups
Read historical issues on the SR(A)WN Archive

Holiday Social

On the 24th December 17:00 - 20:00 UTC we will be having a festive social. We'll likely be playing some games (Among Us, Jackbox etc.) but nothing has been decided yet so shout if there's something you really want to do. The Google Meet link will be in #social on Slack if you want to join!

Discord

We're experimenting with using Discord this year as opposed to the forums. If you'd like to join and help answer questions or just join in the banter with the teams, the sign up link is pinned in #general on Slack.

New Trustee

Thomas Scarsbrook (better known as Scarzy) has joined David and Diane on the Board of Trustees.

Competition

The Game

Our game this year, Radars of the Lost Ark, challenges teams to score points by claiming territories using radios. Teams must navigate the arena scanning for tower transmissions and sending their own transmissions back to claim territories. Teams are awarded points at the end of the match for the maximum extent of their territory at any one time.

Game Modules

As this competition year doesn’t feature a physical competition event, the structure of the competition has changed. The league matches will take place on four weekends throughout the year. After each league session the game will gain additional modules that will present new and different challenges to the competitors. If you have any cool ideas for modules please share them in #game on Slack or come along to a Competition Meeting.

Competition Meetings

We have weekly Competition meetings on Thursdays at 8:30, these are open to all so feel free to drop in without notice or on an ad-hoc basis. These meetings, and any others, can be found on the volunteer calendar.

Friendlies Matches for Teams

We're looking to organise friendly matches for the teams to have a chance to test their code in a less stressful environment. A chance for competitors to face off against other teams, socialize, and get some support from blueshirts. These will be happening 1 week before each league session at 10:30.

Webots Update

Webots, the simulation software behind the competition simulator, released version 2021a with breaking changes. A fix has been submitted to the simulator so that 2020b and 2021a should both work.

Kit

Brain Updates

The Brain Team is re-developing SR kit software for the SR2022 cycle.

We have started working on replacements for the legacy software currently used with the SR kit.
We now have developed an MVP replacement for herdsman called Astoria, which uses asynchronous Python and JSON over MQTT. This software primarily handles detecting and loading student code from USB drives. Documentation is now available.
We have also begun development on a new Debian-based system image, which we aim to build for both ODROID and Raspberry Pi boards.

SR2021 Issue 02

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0000

Keep up with SR(A)WN:

Join the #srawn channel on Slack recommended
Join the srawn mailing list on Google Groups
Read historical issues on the SR(A)WN Archive
NEW Subscribe to the SR(A)WN RSS Feed

Headlines

League Matches

The first round of league sessions are this coming weekend! For more information, please see the event on the website. Follow along and help out in #events.

Module 2 of the game will be announced after the League Matches this weekend.

Friendly Matches

We ran some friendly matches for teams as a low-stress way for them to test their robots against other teams', and socialise with other competitors / volunteers. They went well!

Competition

Game Modules

As this competition year doesn’t feature a physical competition event, the structure of the competition has changed. The league matches will take place on four weekends throughout the year. After each league session the game will gain additional modules that will present new and different challenges to the competitors. If you have any cool ideas for modules please share them in #game on Slack or come along to a Competition Meeting.

Module 3 Ideas

If anyone has ideas for the next game module (module 3), submissions (in #game in Slack) will be welcome.

Competition Meetings

Discord

Kit

Committee

The Kit Committee is planning to hold monthly informal sessions to onboard new volunteers and welcome them to the Student Robotics community. More details will be available soon.

Brain Updates

The Brain Team is re-developing SR kit software for the SR2022 cycle.

Development continues with good, albeit non-specific progress being made
We are looking for help testing the new vision system, any expertise on computer vision mathematics would be greatly appreciated.

SR2021 Issue 03

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -0000

Headlines

Mentoring

There are a number of teams who need mentors to help them with this year's game. No experience with mentoring or the simulator required, but experience with SR is definitely useful!

If you're interested, please let the competition team know!

Module Ⅲ League

We announced Module Ⅲ at the last league session, and teams have 6 weeks to react until the next league session. See the announcement for more info.

League session 3 is in just few weeks on 20th March, where teams will compete in the game defined by Module Ⅲ. Here we'll also unveil Module Ⅳ, the final module of SR2021, and what will be played in league session 4 and the knockouts.

Competition Doing: 6th March

We'll be holding "Doing" on Saturday 6th of March from 2PM UK time to 6PM (but may last longer), working on various competition topics, such as updates to the competition software, wrapping up any changes to Module Ⅳ, and other smaller simulator fixes.

Competition

Module Ⅳ Design

There was a "Doing" on Saturday 20th where we started designing and defining Module Ⅳ. Help and input is still always sought after, so if you're interested in getting involved please drop in to a competition meeting.

New Meeting Time

Competition meetings are now at a new time: 8pm UK time on Wednesdays. As always, these meetings are open to all so feel free to drop in without notice or on an ad-hoc basis. Competition meetings, and any others, can be found on the volunteer calendar.

Subscribe to SR(A)WN

You can keep up with SR(A)WN online:

Join the #srawn channel on Slack recommended
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Subscribe to the SR(A)WN RSS Feed

SR2021 Issue 04

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0000

Headlines

Module 4 Announced to Competitors

Following league session 3 which was held on 20th March, the fourth and final game module (Module 4) was announced.

This substantially changes the arena layout and adds new kinds of territories worth more game points. The towers also received an upgrade meaning they no longer become locked out, but if a robot attempts to claim a territory they already own then it will become unclaimed.

If you're interested in helping out with the final module and knockouts, come along to a competition meeting or get in touch.

Social

We're planning on running some social events during early April. If you want to come along, just fill out the doodle poll in Slack.

Volunteer Mini-Competition

Now that we have the final module of the simulator developed we are wanting to try and do some smoke testing. If anyone is interested in putting together a robot and participating in a mini volunteer competition please reply to the Slack thread

Competition

Friendlies

We ran some friendly matches on Saturday 13th, they went well.

We're planning on running some more friendly matches for teams on the 3rd and 17th of April. These are a great chance to see how teams are fairing in the competition. They're very relaxed, and we mostly comment on how teams are performing in the matches. If you're interested in coming along or helping them happen, come along to a competition meeting, or join the calls when they're posted.

Subscribe to SR(A)WN

You can keep up with SR(A)WN online:

Join the #srawn channel on Slack recommended
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SR2021 Issue 05

Sat, 08 May 2021 00:00:00 -0000

Headlines

St Paul’s College storm to victory

Student Robotics 2021 Virtual Competition came to an exciting conclusion last weekend, with the rookie team from St Paul’s College, Adelaide, storming to victory in a close match against Hills Road Sixth Form College third team.

Competition

Leagues

Our competition event this year spread the league stage over four weekends throughout the year. After each league session the game gained additional modules that presented new and different challenges to the competitors. In addition to the formal league sessions, there were also some more casual friendlies sessions which allowed the teams to experiment with different strategies and test their code against other teams’ in a more relaxed environment.

While this year’s competition presented a different challenge to the competitors that previous years’, the core challenge to create an autonomous robot remained the same.

During the league sessions there were some teams which showed strong early performances. Initially the teams from Hills Road Sixth Form College looked to be the teams to beat. The later leagues however were the battleground of a different collection of teams, with KEGS Chelmsford (KEG), Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf (MAI) as well as rookie teams St Paul’s College (SPA) and We Robot (WER) in particular performing the best in the fourth and most complex of the leauge sessions.

Knockouts

Last weekend the competition culminated in a series of single-elimination knockout matches, allowing the teams robots to demonstrate the peak of their capabilities. The initial pairings of the knockouts were seeded based on performance in the leagues, however this by no means guaranteed a smooth path to the final.

Many teams had ramped up their improvements towards the end of the competition, allowing for some incredibly well contested matches and some surprising outcomes. A particular example of this was team MCK from The Malay College Kuala Kangsar who had finished the leagues near the bottom of the league table and thus faced a challenging set of matches. Nevertheless they managed to knock out the top seed, team MAI from Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf and went on to secure a place on the podium.

Finals

The final match saw St Paul’s College (SPA) and Hills Road Team 3 (HRS3) battle for the top spot. Both teams having shown their incredible abilities throughout the competition. Whilst the robots started off with very different tactics, they were both accruing points very quickly. Due to a large number of link breakages, which the robots actively detected and reacted to, the points and leader switched massively throughout the match. When the clock struck zero it was 36 points to 8 in favour of St Paul’s, giving them the title.

Results

| Prize | Team | |-----------------|--------------------------------------------| | 1st Place | SPA: St Paul’s College, Adelaide | | 2nd Place | HRS3: Hills Road Sixth Form College Team 3 | | 3rd Place | MCK: The Malay College Kuala Kangsar | | Committee Award | HRS2: Hills Road Sixth Form College Team 2 | | Rookie Award | WER: We Robot | | Online Presence | YSH: Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah |

With a consistently strong performance, scoring well in the first league and really stepping up their game in the final league session French team We Robot ended the league stage with the highest number of game points of any team. While this didn’t place them at the top of the league leaderboard, they were the highest placed rookie team and thus earned the Rookie Award.

The Committee Award is given for extraordinary ingenuity or simple elegance in the design of their solution. Team HRS2 from Hills Road Sixth Form College earned this prize in recognition of the high quality of the code that they wrote for their robot. In particular it was clean and easy to read, neatly organised in separate files, with good comments. Their code made good use of a state machine as part of its main control loop and PID control for their movement.

We also encourage teams to share their progress towards their robots throughout the year. Team YSH from Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah earned the Online Presence Award for their Instagram posting throughout the year covering their approach to the competition, strategy and reviews of their performance in the leagues.

Rewatch the streams!

If you’d like to relive the highs and lows of the competition livestreams, the videos remain available on YouTube, as well as a cut-down video of the final:

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SR2022 Issue 01

Sat, 05 Jun 2021 00:00:00 -0000

SR2021 Certificates

After multiple teams from SR2021 requested certificates for their awards, certificates have been designed and are currently in review. The latest iteration of the design includes a creative, but subtle way of integrating the SR logo into the background; all thanks to a Python script used to generate it!

Fundraising

Following the recent Member's Meeting, fundraising efforts have been ramped up and are being discussed in #fundraising. A document specifying tiers of sponsorship has been drafted by the Trustees and is currently under review.

Brain Team releases first "Alpha" of SR2022 Kit Software

The Brain Team have been working hard over the last 10 months to overhaul the kit software that we provide to competitors.

The new features that have been developed include:

Python 3 support. The images ships with Python 3.9
Mainline Linux Kernel (5.10)
Support for re-running student code without rebooting the robot.
Startup time under 15 seconds, better on faster SD cards.
Tweaked Python API inspired by changes introduced in the SourceBots kit

The first of a series of "alpha" images has been released for testing and experimentation. Updated alpha and beta images will be released at semi-regular intervals over the next few months.

The image is available for:

ODROID U3+ (Currently shipped in kits)
Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+
Raspberry Pi 4B

You can download the image from the releases page for robot-image. It should be flashed to an SD card using a tool like dd. A appropriate robot.zip can be generated using the new version of make-zip.

The Brain Team are holding a introductory session to the new software, including design and technical details and how to get involved in development. Please fill in the Doodle poll for the meeting if you would like to attend.

Process Documentation

Whilst there's no Student Robotics competition right now, there's still plenty to do. Many volunteers are busy improving the runbook, documenting our processes and procedures for running competitions, and improving things along the way.

If you're interested in seeing how things get done, or in getting involved in the discussion, check out the runbook repository, or join one of the fortnightly "Doings" (links in the calendar), part social, part writing documentation.

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SR2022 Issue 02

Sun, 10 Oct 2021 00:00:00 -0000

Kit Packing Event - Next Weekend

There's a kit packing day happening on 2021-10-16 (next Saturday) at Southampton University (Building 32 (32/3077)). Plan is to start at around 10am.

Kit packing is when we test the kit works, clean it, triage it and pack it into RUBs to be shipped out to teams. It'll be a great chance to meet other volunteers and generally socialise. We'll probably then do something social in the evening too.

All volunteers welcome, although we do strongly recommend doing a COVID test before attending. There's a calendar event with all the details.

Kit Hack Day - 30th October

There's a kit "hack" day happening on 2021-10-30 at Southampton University (Building 32 (32/3077)). We're planning to start at around 10am.

Kit hacking days are a chance for us to spend a day working on all aspects of the kit, making sure it's ready for kickstart. Not only is there development, but documentation, testing, chatting, discussions, and more. It'll be a great chance to meet other volunteers and generally socialise. We'll probably then do something social in the evening too.

All volunteers welcome, although we do strongly recommend doing a COVID test before attending. There's a calendar event with all the details.

Game Design

A successful games design meeting was had on Thursday, and work on a rulebook has begun. Join #game in Slack and see discussions on the rules. All contributions are welcome.

Kickstart

This year is the long-awaited return of the physical robotics competition! Kickstart will be a virtual event, that is currently planned for 13th November.

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SR2022 Issue 03

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 00:00:00 -0000

Sign up to help with our Kickstart team visits

We're running Kickstart a little differently this year. The Kickstart event will be livestreamed to all teams on Saturday 13th November 2021.

We would like to run one-on-one sessions to check the kits are in working order, assist with micro-games, and be there to answer any questions from the team. Some of these will be on the day, and some in the following few weeks, both virtually and in-person depending on team and volunteer availability.

If you'd like to give our teams a head start and get involved with these sessions, please sign up and let us know your availability!

Successful Kit Packing Event

The kit packing event on the 16th and 17th October was a success and we had a great time getting things ready to send out to teams this year.

Hack Day on 30th October

There's a kit "hack" day happening on 2021-10-30 in Southampton university (building 32 (32/3077)). Plan is to start at around 10. Kit hacking days are a chance for us to spend a day working on all aspects of the kit, making sure it's ready for kickstart. Not only is there development, but documentation, testing, chatting, discussions, and more. It'll be a great chance to meet other volunteers and generally socialise. We'll probably then do something social in the evening too. All volunteers are welcome, although we do strongly recommend doing a COVID test before attending. There's a calendar event on the shared SR calendar with all the details.

Kit Logistics Issue Tracking proposal

A proposal was made in the last kit team meeting for tracking kit logistics for SR2022 and going forward in an open manner. It will allow us to have a view of what kits are currently in the field, and whether they need returning. The proposed ticketing-style system would be implemented using GitHub Issue Templates and would replace the current system of spreadsheets.

More details are available in the minutes from the meeting

Request for Help: Yocto and OpenEmbedded Experience

Please could any volunteers willing to help out with embedded Linux on the ODROID reach out to the Kit Team in #kit-software on Slack?. We are aiming to reduce the size of the image and introduce atomic updates using Yocto / OpenEmbedded and would appreciate any time that volunteers with experience can spare! Currently both Rauc and Mender are under consideration as alternatives to the current Arch Linux based images we have been building.

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SR2022 Issue 04

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0000

New sponsor: Mythic Beasts

We have a new sponsor! We're pleased to welcome Mythic Beasts as a bronze level sponsor, who are providing the infrastructure team with the servers they need to provide their service to the rest of Student Robotics.

SR2022 Game

We've been putting the finishing touches to the rules for SR2022. There's still time to voice your opinion! srobo/rules#62

Kickstart

Kickstart is in less than a week's time. If you're interested in helping make it happen, come along to next week's competition team meeting on Wednesday @ 19:30 UK. Details can be found in our calendar.

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SR2022 Issue 05

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0000

SR2022 Kickstart a success

The SR2022 competition year was kicked off with our Kickstart event which was livestreamed to competitors on YouTube! You can find out more about the event as well as a summary of this years game in our companion blog post

Mentoring Teams

We're starting to organise mentoring for this year. If you are interested in helping out a team with their robot, software, or strategy, please fill in this form and we'll try and match you with a team.

Tech Days

We're throwing a virtual tech day on the 4th December on our Discord. This will give use the chance to provide some direct help to teams who may need it, and answer questions anyone may have. You can sign up to Discord using the links in Slack.

We're starting to think about what in-person tech days might look like for 2022. If you're interested in helping organise them or the rest of the competition event, come join a competition team meeting!

New Kit Software

With the start of this year's competition cycle, we have shipped our new Yocto-based ODROID operating system.

The image runs our new j5-based API, sr.robot3, new vision system and our new robot management system (replacing Herdsman). All included Python software on the runs on Python 3.9.

All our kit downloads are being served using a Raspberry Pi from our sponsor Mythic Beasts. That's pretty cool!

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SR2022 Issue 06

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0000

Festive Social

There will be a social on Wednesday 29th from 5pm onwards UK Time! This is a chance for volunteers to get together and unwind while playing some games. For full details check out the #social channel in Slack.

January Virtual Tech Day

We're throwing a virtual tech day on the 22nd January on our Discord. This will give us the chance to provide some direct help to teams who may need it, and answer questions anyone may have. You can sign up to Discord using the links in Slack. If you're interested in helping mentor a team during the tech day, or want to help organise it, come along to a competition meeting!

Happy Holidays!

All of our Teams have been working hard over the past few months and most are winding down a little for a well deserved rest over the holiday period. They'll be back to full swing in the new year so if you want to get involved feel free to come along to a meeting.

Happy Holidays to all our SR volunteers!

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SR2022 Issue 07

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0000

Upcoming Tech Day

After a successful Virtual Tech Day on the 22nd January in our Discord server. Teams met in person to work on their robots and got help and guidance remotely from our volunteers. Great progress was made!

Following on from this success, we are planning another virtual Tech Day on the 5th March. If you're interested in helping out with this tech day, please join #competition-team in Slack and let us know!

Competition Dates Announced

The competition will be held on the 23rd and 24th of April 2022 at SUSU on the University of Southampton's Highfield Campus. There will be setup days on the 21st and 22nd of April. If you are interested in volunteering at the competition, please register your interest and we'll get in touch closer to the competition to work out the remaining details.

Tasks have been imported into the task tracker

The recurring tasks that we need to complete for each competition have been imported into srobo/tasks. This year we have grouped the tasks into areas and assigned a Head and a Deputy for each. If you see a task you want to get involved with just comment on the issue :)

Kit Update

The Kit team has released version 2022.1.0 of the brain board image and are working on creating a browser interface to help teams work on their code. If you're interested in helping build this new UI join #kit-web-interface

Progress from Teams

We recently polled teams to get a sense of how they're going. As you'd expect at this stage of the competition, the results were mixed. Some of the teams have moving robot bases and are honing their ability to find cans, while others are still in the early stages of construction. In addition to mentoring (some of which is happening in person), we're considering other ways to support teams pro-actively to ensure they have the best experience at the competition.

If you're interested in keeping up with the teams progress you can follow us on Twitter @studentrobotics where we retweet teams' progress. If you're interested in helping out with mentoring, please join #competition-team in Slack and let us know!

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SR2022 Issue 08

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0000

Volunteer sign up form for the competition now open!

We need some enthusiastic volunteers to help inspire the younger generation, and keep this event running as smooth as possible. This is a different form to the one you may have previously filled in and collects more specific details about your availability. If you think you're up for it, please sign up now!

March Virtual Tech Day

We're throwing a virtual tech day on the 5th March on our Discord. This will give us the chance to provide some direct help to teams who may need it, and answer questions anyone may have. If you're interested in helping mentor a team during the tech day, you can sign up to Discord using the links pinned in #general in Slack.

March Volunteer Social

There will be a social on Sunday 13th from 7:30pm onwards UK Time! This is a chance for volunteers to get together and unwind while playing some games. For full details check out #social in Slack.

New Kit UI

A team of volunteers have formed to work on a web based user interface for the new kit software. If you're interested in helping out in this effort check out the #kit-web-interface in Slack

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SR2023 Issue 01

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0000

The SR kit is getting an upgrade!

This year's kit will be using Raspberry Pis instead of the previously used ODROID brain boards. We've also designed, and manufactured new Pi Hats (known as the KCH) as part of the kit revamp.

SR2023 Planning Underway

Work is underway on planning kickstart, and the registration for teams have opened. Please keep an eye on #competition-team and SR(A)WN over the next few weeks to see how you can help.

New hosting provider

We've moved the website hosting to Mythic Beasts. This means that https://srobo.org/ works again, plus we have IPv6 and HTTP/2 support now.

Less typos inbound

We're in the process of adding spell checking to our repos, which should reduce the typos that make it to the outside world.

Infrastructure Team Roadmap

The Infrastructure Team are in the process of creating a roadmap of work for the next 6 months or so. If you have any ideas for what you think they should work on please post in #infrastructure

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SR2023 Issue 02

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 -0000

Kit Packing Event

We have a kit packing event coming up on Saturday the 5th of November in Southampton. Help would be appreciated. Please post in #kit-team on Slack if you want to help out.

SR2023 Kickstart

On Saturday 22nd October we had our Kickstart event held in-person at Southampton University and virtually via a livestream on our YouTube channel. We're incredibly grateful to everyone who worked hard to make the event a success, and it was fantastic to see so many new volunteers join us.

Kickstart Retro

Now that Kickstart has happened we're arranging a meeting to discuss what went well and what we may need to change in the future. This "retrospective" will be held on Wednesday 2nd November 8pm UK Time after the regular Competition Team meeting in the same Google Meet call. All are welcome, but we'd particularly like to encourage those that attended the event to attend!

Mentoring Teams

Now that SR2023 is underway we're looking at how we can support our teams. One way we do this is through mentoring, where we assign a volunteer to a team and they join their meetings on a regular basis to provide support and ideas. If you're interested in this please sign up to become a mentor.

Blog Posts

The Marketing team are looking for various blog posts to publish throughout the competition year. These could be of a technical nature, related to careers, STEM education, or about anything else SR! We're more than happy to help develop ideas and assist with writing and editing these, so do please reach out to us in #marketing on Slack if you are interested.

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SR2023 Issue 03

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -0000

SR2024 Kit Roadmap Ideas

If you have ideas for features or changes to the kit for SR2024 (or even SR2025!), we are gathering them in a document. We will announce a meeting to discuss all of the ideas soon. Please add your ideas to our ideas doc.

All volunteers are welcome to suggest ideas and all ideas are welcome!

December Tech Day

We are running a Tech Day on the 3rd of December in Whitechapel, London. Tech Days are opportunities for teams to spend a whole day working on their robot with lots of help available. If you're interested in helping out please post in the Slack thread.

Mentoring Teams

A huge thank you to everyone who has signed up to be a mentor so far! We're still looking for more people who would like to be assigned to a team and join their meetings on a regular basis to provide support and ideas. If you're interested in this please sign up to become a mentor.

CRM for managing Competitor Teams

The Infrastructure Team are exploring a CRM or similar off-the-shelf tool could help manage interactions with competitor teams. Suggestions for approaches are welcome (please post in #infrastructure in slack).

Rules Update

The Competition Team have published an update to the rules which changes the sizes of token markers and of the Bronze and Silver tokens, such that the markers (and importantly their white borders) will actually fit on the tokens. Markers are now 80mm and these smaller tokens are 130mm.

Documentation Platform

The Infrastructure Team are exploring improvements to our internal documentation platform and will be seeking input from the various Teams & Committees soon. In the meanwhile the review requirements on the runbook have been considerably relaxed to make contributions easier.

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SR2023 Issue 04

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0000

SR2023 Competition Dates Announced

The SR2023 competition will be held on the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of April 2023. We're working hard on confirming the venue but hope that you can at least mark the date in your calendars!

Kit Update 2023.1.0 + Upcoming Release

We shipped an update to the Kit Software 🎉 Version 2023.1.0 has a number of improvements, including the necessary changes for the reduced marker size in the last rules update. You can read about them in our announcement post.

The Kit team is planning to release a kit software update after the new year on 2023-01-07. If you have any ideas for software improvements that could be implemented before them, let us know in #kit-software on Slack.

December Virtual Tech Day

Unfortunately due to circumstances outside of our control, we had to pivot the December Tech Day to be virtual. We instead held it on our Discord server with volunteers on hand to help with any issues or problems the competitors had.

December Social

We had a volunteer social on Saturday 10th December. It was a lot of fun with chatting and some casual party/group games. Keep an eye on #social in Slack to see the planning for our next one. All volunteers are most welcome :)

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SR2023 Issue 05

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0000

SR2023 Venue Confirmed

The competition will be held from Saturday 1st April until Sunday 2nd April at SUSU on the University of Southampton's Highfield Campus. There will be setup days on the 30th and 31st of March. If you are interested in volunteering at the competition, please register your interest and we'll get in touch closer to the competition to work out the remaining details.

February Tech Days

On February 4th, we're holding an in person Tech Day in Horsham as well as a virtual Tech day on Discord. If you're about to help out please sign up with your availability.

Kit Team Plans for SR2024

The Kit Team held a meeting to refine their plans for SR2024. With a backlog of items to work through if you'd like to help please post in #kit-team on Slack.

Mentoring

We're looking for volunteers to mentor our SR2023 teams. This is a great opportunity (especially for new volunteers) to actively get involved with competitors, see their design process, and learn about our kit. This involves joining their meetings on a regular basis to provide support and ideas. If you're interested in this please sign up to become a mentor.

Infrastructure Team

The Infrastructure team have a few projects underway:

Planning the infrastructure for the competition
Investigating a CRM for teams & volunteers
Collecting information from internal teams about iterating our internal documentation platform

If you'd like to help with any of these (please post in #infrastructure in slack).

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SR2024 Issue 01

Sat, 22 Jul 2023 00:00:00 -0000

Kit cleaning a success, packing next!

A couple weeks ago, volunteers assembled in Southampton to perform maintenance on the kits. Kits were tested, cleaned, updated and organised for next year. It was an incredibly productive event, so thanks you everyone who made it possible.

We do need to finish off the cleaning and testing of the kit, and start packing it into boxes ready to be shipped to teams. No technical experience is required, nor is experience with the kit. Just a willingness to get involved and an appetite to learn. If you're interested in helping out, complete this poll by 1st August.

Help get the Simulator ready for Kickstart

We're starting up a Special Interest Group (SIG) for getting the SR robot simulator ready for kickstart! If you're interested in getting involved, react to the thread in Slack.

Help plan the next iteration of our Kit

The kit team are considering what the next iteration of kit might look like, and are open to any and all suggestions and opinions for how it should work, feature-set and design. A meeting has been scheduled for September 19th at 7:15, all volunteers are welcome. More details can be found in our calendar.

The Infrastructure Team is looking for volunteers

The infrastructure team are interested in new members. If you'd like to help out running SR's internal tech infrastructure please post in #infrastructure in slack. The infrastructure team currently meets on Wednesday evenings once a month, however this time is under review to ensure it works well for all team members.

Kit firmware rewritten

The kit team recently undertook the mammoth task of rewriting the firmware on the motor and power boards, to both expose more features, improve maintainability and ease of use. The new firmware will ship in SR2024, to go alongside the updated power board firmware we shipped in SR2023. The power, servo and motor firmwares are all available on our GitHub. A massive thanks to Will Barber for his huge contributions to this effort.

New Committees

The internal Student Robotics Teams now have new committees. A huge thank you to all those who were apart of the outgoing committees! They have done a great job at steering the work of their respective teams over the last committee cycle(s) and we hope that they will look back with pride at everything they achieved.

Your new committees are:

Competition Team - Andy Busse, Andrew Barrett-Sprot, and Alistair Lynn.
Kit Team - Jake Howard, Josh Perriman, and Karina Kwiatek.
Infrastructure Team - Peter Law.
Marketing Team - Hope Shaw and James Seden Smith
Volunteer Onboarding Team - Antoine Petty and Alex Colville

The Fundraising Team committee has yet to be finalised, the trustees are currently talking to a couple of people and will confirm in due course.

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SR2024 Issue 02

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0000

Kit testing and packing socials

The dates for kit testing and packing social are the 2nd and 16th September. No technical experience is required, nor is experience with the kit. Just a willingness to get involved and an appetite to learn. Locations will be announced soon, but if you're interested in attending, RSVP to the calendar event or keep an eye on Slack.

Kickstart is virtual this year!

Kickstart SR2024 will be held virtually with teams tuning in to our YouTube livestream from their schools. We'll be supporting teams in Discord so if you want to get involved with mentoring please reach out in #competition-team on Slack!

Competitor Team sign-ups are open!

We've already have ~25 teams expressing their interest, but there's still time for teams to sign-up. If you know an institution that would like to enter a team, encourage them to fill out the sign-up form on our website

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SR2024 Issue 03

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0000

Upcoming Kit Packing Event

On the 16th September is the final kit packing event. Here we'll be sorting out the final pieces of kit, ensuring all the software is up-to-date, and packing it into boxes. It's happening at the University of Southampton in Building 32. All volunteers welcome, and no kit experience required.

SR2024 Kickstart

Kickstart is coming up soon, and whilst it's a virtual even there's still a lot to be done. If you're interested in helping out, keep an eye on #competition-team in Slack or come along to a competition meeting. Team management, rules writing, venue booking, microgames design - plenty to do!

V5 kit kick-off meeting

The kick-off meeting for the V5 iteration of kit has been postponed to 3rd October at 19:15 (UK time). If you're interested in getting involved with what the new vision for our kit is, please come along - everyone is welcome. This meeting will be very high level, talking about what a new kit might look like, form factor, features, design etc. The meeting link can be found in our calendar

Documentation Overhaul

A huge effort is underway to update our docs and ensure everything is correct and as approachable as possible for the students. If you're interested in helping out, take a look at the open PRs or issues, or contact the kit team.

The Game

The SR2024 game has been decided and efforts are underway to write up the rulebook for competitors. A huge thanks to all the volunteers on the Game Special Interest Group who came up with 4 fantastic proposals for us to choose from!

Kit Cleaning Event a Success!

There was a kit event on Saturday the 2nd to get the kit finalised and ready to be packed into kits. It was a successful and productive event, so thanks to everyone involved.

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SR2024 Issue 04

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0000

SR2024 Kickstart coming up

Our Kickstart event is on 21st October. This year we are fully virtual, with Kickstart being streamed on YouTube and teams supported via Discord. If you're around and want to help out join the blueshirt voice channel on Discord on the day to get stuck in!

SR2024 Tech Days

We've announced the Tech Day dates for SR2024!

4th October - Horsham (Red River Software)
9th December - Southampton (University of Southampton)
20th January - Horsham (Red River Software)
2nd March - Cambridge (Raspberry Pi Foundation)

We need volunteers in order to run these Tech Days, please sign up to volunteer if you're able to help out!

V5 Kit Development Now Underway

We kicked off the V5 Kit development with a very successful brainstorming meeting identifying the impacted parties and what they might care about from a kit. The Kit Team / Committee are going to schedule in some regular, more narrow-focused meetings to discuss some of these areas. If you're interested in helping out, keep an eye on SR(A)WN and #kit-team / #v5-kit in Slack for updates.

SR2024 Teams Confirmed

We’ve confirmed the teams for SR2024 and have now closed sign-ups. A huge thanks to all on the Competition and Kit teams for their work in collating Kit shipping information.

SR2024 Kits have been shipped

The bulk of the kits have now been shipped to teams well in time for them to arrive prior to Kickstart. A huge thanks to the Kit and Competition Teams for their hard work in confirming details with our teams.

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SR2024 Issue 05

Sun, 05 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0000

The Competition Team Needs You!

As we gear up for the competition we're once again looking at assigning Area Owners and Deputies. To help us organise the competition, we've split up the necessary tasks into different areas each with an Owner and Deputies. They are responsible for ensuring tasks are completed (not necessarily doing all the tasks on their own!). We have Owners for each of the areas, listed below, and are looking for people that may be interested in becoming a Deputy.

Health & Safety - Owner: Scarzy, Deputies: None
Marketing Liaison - Owner: James, Deputies: None
Mentoring - Owner: Andy Busse, Deputies: None
Teams - Owner: Jake, Deputies: Peter
Kit Liaison - Owner: Will, Deputies: None
Event Logistics - Owner: Will, Deputies: James
Livestreaming - Owner: Anton, Deputies: None
Production - Owner: Jake, Deputies: None
Game - Owner: Alistair, Deputies: None
Volunteer - Owner: Andy B-S, Deputies: Antoine
Simulator - Owner: Peter, Deputies: None

If you're interested in getting stuck in, or want to know more about what the role of a deputy entails, just reach out in #competition-team in Slack

Buddies for new volunteers

With a bunch of new volunteers joining us over the past couple of months, we'd like to pair up new volunteers with more experienced volunteers (buddies) to get them familiar with what we're up to.

The role of a buddy is to:

Welcome new volunteers to attend their first meeting and give an introduction to what the team is up to
Have an initial video call before the meeting to bring the new volunteer up to speed and to give them a friendly face of someone in the meeting
Make the new volunteer aware of upcoming in-person events
Contact them approximately once a month to check in
Answer questions the new volunteer may have, where possible

If you're interested in becoming a buddy, please sign up here!

Mentoring

With the competition well underway, we aim to aim to provide support to teams in many different ways. One of the most beneficial to teams is to have a volunteer mentor visit them on a regular basis.

Mentoring is an opportunity for you to get to know a team and to grow your communication and team working skills, as well as help them improve their robot.

The role of a mentor is to guide a team towards good solutions for their robot, provide assistance where they might need it as well as help them understand the kit, the rules and the competition as a whole. This doesn't mean that you need to know everything about these yourself (it's completely fine not to know things!), rather you will guide them towards finding the information for themselves.

The team will always be supervised by their team leader (usually a teacher), so you can focus on supporting them with their robot.

We have some guidance for mentors at https://studentrobotics.org/runbook/volunteering/mentor-guidance/. If you've not mentored a team before we're very happy to support you in doing so, if you like you can be paired with another mentor who has more experience.

If you're interested in becoming a mentor, please sign up!

Horsham November Tech Day a Success

A huge thank you to everyone who attended the Horsham Tech Day, the event was a great success with both teams in attendance making a huge amount of progress! There's still time to sign up to help out at our upcoming tech days if you haven't already.

9th December - Southampton (University of Southampton)
20th January - Horsham (Red River Software)
2nd March - Cambridge (Raspberry Pi Foundation)

We need volunteers in order to run these Tech Days, please sign up to volunteer if you're able to help out!

Virtual Competition Announced

Following on from last years success we're running a Virtual Competition as a part of SR2024. Teams will submit their code and we'll run simulations pitting their virtual robots against the other teams before livestreaming the matches on our YouTube channel on the 9th March 2024.

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SR2024 Issue 06

Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 -0000

Competition is done!

The 2024 competition took place on the 13th and 14th of April and was by far the most recent competition of all time! Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf won 1st place after a hard-fought final against The Ladies' College Guernsey, Headington School, and Wisbech Grammar School. Read more about the competition on our blog post.

Volunteer Feedback Survey

We would really appreciate if you would fill out our Volunteer Feedback Survey - it should only take a few minutes and will help us improve the competition for next year.

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SR2026 Issue 01

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0000

Kickstart

30 teams from around the UK and Europe are registered and ready for the competition to be kickstarted on Saturday November 8th at the University of Southampton.

Kickstart is the event which kicks off a competition year. The structure of the competition and the game rules will be announced and of course any questions you have will be answered.

If you're around, it's a great way to learn about the upcoming competition, and get involved in organising it. If you're around, please come along!

Get involved

There's loads of ways to help with SR2026, taking as much or as little time as you can give.

The physical competition needs a small army of volunteers to run in numerous technical and non technical roles. We'll open sign ups for volunteering at the event as soon as we can confirm the venue
Throughout the year there's lots of preparation to do for the competition and other events, with tasks big & small where any help is welcome. The Areas format from previous years is still here. To help with any of these, be sure to join our Weekly Forum (Wednesdays at 19:30)
We're on the look out for mentors, who would regularly attend a teams' meetings (either virtually on in person) and assist them. We'll be opening up expressions of interest shortly after kickstart
We'll be running Tech Days and in person events which will need people to help run. We're aiming to be running around one a month, and will be announcing dates and locations at kickstart.

Keep an eye on your inboxes for information about these opportunities as details are announced!

Areas

Running Student Robotics is no small feat so to help spread the load we've allocated "area owners", each responsible for their own part of the competition.

This year, the charity has reorganised around these areas, rather than having both Areas and Committees. There's now just a single committee, with Area Owners. Things are still transitioning, but the aim is to improve efficiency and momentum.

This year there are the following areas:

Livestream & Production: Anton Nikitin
Volunteer Coordination: Alex Colville
Kit Maintenance
Area Logistics: Will Barber
Game: Alistair Lynn
Team Support
Marketing: James Seden Smith
Fundraising: Holly Holder
Infrastructure: Jake Howard

If you want to help out throughout the year, the Weekly Forum is the best place to start - Wednesdays at 19:30. Here, area owners give updates on how their areas are progressing, ask for help, and generally push the competition forwards. If you're interested in helping out with a specific area, feel free to reach out to an area owner directly instead. No prior experience is necessary, just a can do attitude!

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SR2026 Issue 02

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0000

The competition has begun

The competition is well underway now. This year, in The Neutral Zone, teams are tasked with sorting out some mixed up chemicals. Their mission is to collect and catalogue samples, being careful which ones they collect. But when working with strong chemicals, care must be taken. If teams get acidic and basic samples too close together, they’ll react and neutralise each other, making them worthless. Feel free to check out the rulebook for the exact details.

Teams are building their robots and submitting challenges, communicating with their teammates and other teams in our Discord. A big thanks to Karina for their work overhauling our Discord Bot to make creating and managing guilds that much simpler.

Challenge Days

We've planned 2 Challenge Days for SR2026. Similar to tech days, they're a chance for teams to get in a room and work on their robot with hands-on support from us blueshirts. But unlike tech days, these days are primarily focused around completing and judging challenges.

We're planning on running 2 Challenge Days:

Competition Dates

We are happy to confirm that Student Robotics 2026 will be taking place on Saturday 11th April to Sunday 12th April at the University of Southampton Students' Union!

We'll formally collect sign-ups soon, including more details for the schedule for the event

Weekly Forum

After a Holiday Hiatus, our Weekly Forum meetings are back. We meet weekly on a Wednesday at 19:30 (UK) to discuss outstanding tasks, review issues and generally progress the competition. It's the best way to get involved with helping organise the competition cycle - Anyone is welcome. The calendar event and call details can be found in our public calendar.

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