“The RoboCupJunior mission: creating a learning environment for today, fostering understanding among humans and technology for tomorrow”

These days there is a tremendous amount of interest in robotic competitions and events, both as a tool for facilitating active classroom participation, as well as for extracurricular activities. One of the biggest robotic competitions in the world is the RoboCup, which this year alone will have hosted events in Mexico, Germany, Iran, Austria, the Netherlands, Canada, Turkey and Japan. Here in the United States, the RoboCup is represented by RoboCup Junior, which acts as an entry level to the international RoboCup initiative.

Recently, we spoke with Professor Amy Eguchi of Bloomfield College in New Jersey, who acts as the head of RoboCup Junior in the United States. As Professor Eguchi explained, RoboCup Junior (aka RCJ) is focused on teaching technology to students ranging from the elementary to the high school level. In fact, even though it might be referred to by many as a “competition”, the primary objective of RCJ since it was founded in 2000, has been more on education, sharing and teamwork than on winning.

RCJ consists of three challenge areas. Here is the description of these challenges, as found on the RoboCup Junior website :

• SOCCER – The soccer game, played with 2 robots per team, involves a dynamic environment where teams of autonomous mobile robots play games in a field that are color-coded in shades of gray.
• RESCUE – The rescue league engages robots to identify victims accurately & quickly for recreated disaster scenarios that vary in complexity. Ranging from negotiating paths through obstacles to line-following on a flat surface.
• DANCE – The robot dance emphasizes creativity, bringing robot(s) and music together. Some robots are dressed in costume and moving alone or with humans.

Teachers like the challenges because they do not change from one year to the next, which many feel gives the students the chance to build upon previous models they have designed, and to devise more sophisticated solutions as their own knowledge grows. Also, unlike many other robotic challenges which often consist primarily of ‘joy-stick’ controlled models, RCJ encourages students to become more adept at programming due to the emphasis placed on creating autonomous robots, and thus fosters a much richer educational experience.

Yet another nice aspect of the RCJ challenges are that they allow students using many different robotic platforms, including fischertechnik, to compete against one another, unlike other events which focus on a single manufacturer’s hardware and exclude all others. (That being said, we would like to note that the fischertechnik ROBO TX Explorer set #508778  can be an ideal starting point for participating in the rescue league challenge.)

Currently, RCJ events are held in the New York City area each April, but there are also plans for future expansion to Florida, California, and Pittsburgh PA if enough interest warrants it.

Professor Eguchi is very interested in expanding participation in the RoboCup Junior in the United States. If you’d like to find out more about the rules for the various RCJ challenges, chat with RoboCup Robotic Scientists, or find out how your students can register for the next RoboCupJunior, she encourages you to visit their website, http://www.rcjnynj.org/. You can also email her directly with any questions you may have at [email protected].

Author: Lance Zurek