A group of high school students from the northwestern province of Tekirdağ will represent Türkiye in the Vex Robotic Competition, which is set to be held in the southwestern U.S. city of Dallas with the attendance of over 800 teams from 50 countries at the end of this month.
The nine-person team of students, which came in second among 32 teams in the competition held in Istanbul, won the opportunity to represent the country in the U.S. between April 25-27.
The students from Tekirdağ Ebru Nayim Science High School developed the robot over the span of three months.
Speaking with Demirören News Agency (DHA), they touched upon the features and software used for coding while conveying hope for succeeding at the U.S.-based competition as well.
Buğra Saltık, one of the captains of the robotics team who implemented the software, said, "I have full faith that we will represent our country in the best possible way in the U.S. I believe in my team ... our work on the robot is continuing at this time. Our goal is to bring home success from the U.S."
Saltık noted that software integration occurs after the robot is fully developed and its parts are constructed because there are many variable factors in the software. "Sometimes, this is a process that takes two to three weeks, sometimes it can last one month," he explained.
He also explained that they used the C++ program, where they write the codes through the program’s library named "vex."
Explaining that the competition consists of various autonomous tests, Saltık said there are 15-second autonomous periods in the normal match and one minute in the robot skills area.
"In the autonomous tests, the robot works according to the codes we wrote," he said.
The other captain of the robotic coding team, Elanur Has, said this was the second robot they have made this year, adding that in last year’s nationwide competition, their team ranked first.
"We put so much effort into and work hard to design the robots. They start (in the form of) panels, columns and beams, and we shape them to create a robot. We also undertake the design and construction of it," she said.
Sedat Eren, the information technologies teacher working alongside the team, also explained it is up to the students and team to decide what they "can do with the robot" when they design it. He noted that they designed a new, goal-oriented robot in compliance with the theme for this year.
The students start the 3D modeling in the computer environment, after which they cut and construct the robots in the real life, Eren said.
After that, the coding team steps up, he added. Reiterating that the whole process is teamwork, Eren stated that working as a group, they strive to achieve the best results.
Explaining that their high school robotics team was established in 2019 and started to participate in competitions one year later, he also underscored that due to the pandemic, their activities were halted but that last year they took home the Türkiye champions title with the robot they had made.
"Our team worked hard again this year. They produced a beautiful robot and we advanced to the final round. We ranked second in Türkiye and became one of the four teams that will represent our country in the world," Eren said.
Regarding this year's competition, he also said that their robot is designed to collect points by throwing discs it picks up into baskets in accordance with this year's theme.
"In addition, it is also programmed to turn the four rotating rollers on the side of the field into its own color during the match. It has an expansion mechanism to make it wider. In this way, it tries to take up as much space as possible at the end of the match to block opponents. The aim is to collect extra points and win the competition thanks to all these abilities," he explained.