Move over C-3PO, there’s a new robot in town.
Year 10 Bacchus Marsh College student Matthew Hein is the brains behind the state’s top search-and-rescue robot.
Matthew and seven classmates attended last month’s Robocup state finals, competing against 23 teams from across Victoria.
Matthew’s robot took out the junior search-and-rescue title.
“It was a great feeling,” he said.
“I took part because I did robotics as a subject, and I found it challenging while still enjoyable.”
Entries in the rescue category had to mimic the real-life use of rescue robots.
The robots followed a winding line on a series of tiles to a
designated rescue area, encountering obstacles, bridges and short-cut
opportunities along the way. After negotiating the path, the robots
arrived at a “chemical spill” and had to rescue a victim.
The Bacchus Marsh students spent more than two months building and
programming their robots, which were created using basic Lego bricks.
“Using basic materials, you construct the robot according to what functions you want out of it,” Matthew said.
“It was tricky. My main focus is accuracy and with line follow
that’s what it really depends on. You have to make it do exactly what
you want as soon as you press those buttons.”
Four Bacchus Marsh students made it to the semi-finals. Caleb Watson finished second in the premier search-and-rescue division.
Later this month, Matthew and Caleb will take their creations to Brisbane for the Robocup nationals.
“I’m going to make another one by redesigning and rebuilding the original,” Matthew said.
‘‘You don’t have to, but I figure the competition will step up, so I want to make it go faster and keep its accuracy.”
