News

Monday 18 June 2007

Race is on to find robotic car champ

School pupils from across Nottinghamshire are gearing up for a challenge to design and build a robotic car which will be put through its paces at an event at Nottingham Trent University. The battery-powered cars will be programmed to perform a number of tricky manoeuvres as part of the university’s Robot Racer Electronic Challenge 2007 on June 28.

Against the clock they will need to race along a track, drop or shoot a table tennis ball into   target areas and reverse back to the start line. The cars will automatically sense both the dropping zone and when to reverse; primary school pupils will use mechanical sensors and secondary school pupils will use electronic sensors with miniature computers.

Scores will be based on both speed and accuracy with prizes also awarded for technical innovation, a novelty event and a school display.

The event at the Clifton campus is in its third year and has been organised by the university’s Nottinghamshire Electronics Hub, based within the School of Education. The hub is a support centre set up by the Electronics in Schools Strategy (EISS) which aims to promote the teaching of electronics as part of design and technology.

Andy Cooper, a Senior Lecturer in Education, said: “We are hoping to spend another exciting day seeing both capable and interesting designs try to beat the clock whilst performing tasks which require accuracy – a challenge indeed. We’re also looking forward to seeing some weird and wonderful designs, as teams have previously personalised their robot as favourite cartoon characters, tanks, ships and furry creatures.”

ENDS

Notes for editors: The Robot Racer Electronics Challenge 2007 is run in partnership with Nottinghamshire SETPOINT and Nottinghamshire Education Business Alliance (NEBA). Jeremy Barnard, Head UK Optical Networks R& D, Ericsson will be presenting the Ericsson Prize for innovation.  Prizes are also being presented by Suregrave UK. Kre8, and Kitronik.

Pupils taking part in the challenge will be aged ten to 16 and include boys and girls.

More details about the competition can be found here: http://www.ntu.ac.uk/education/school_news/47522gp.html

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Or Therese Easom, Press and Media Relations Manager, on Tel: 0115 848 8774, or via email: therese.easom@ntu.ac.uk