In May 2023
Hooray, we made 2nd place in the Elementary category in Winti!
On Saturday, May 13, 2023, we went to the regional competition.
The week before, we met every day in the afternoon and worked on time optimization. As we were always over the 2-minute time limit for completing all the tasks, we had to decide what exactly to leave out. We decided to leave out the small packages but to include the way back. In the end, we had a time of between 1 min 55 sec and 1 min 58 sec.
We thought that a place in the top 5 was possible, winning was not so important to us.
We were already nervous on the day of the regional competitions. Everything was new and exciting. Each team was given its own table to work at.
The special task was announced before the assembly. However, we only dealt with this after the 2nd run.
Our referees carried out various checks at different times. At the beginning, they made sure that all parts of the robot were individually in our bags. Our charging cable was then defective, but a friendly organizer lent us a cable.
During the construction phases between the heats, we were able to add the missing part of the program for the special task. Our dads and our coach were only allowed to watch in the cordoned-off area. During one of the construction phases, a reporter came and asked us questions.
After assembly, all the robots were assembled on a separate table and connected to the charging cable again. We first saw the various assembled robots and were curious to see how they worked.
The heats were then exciting. The first round went well for us, which took away some of the nervousness. One robot completed two tasks at once. It was clear that it had set the best time and was the candidate for first place. Surprisingly, we were in second place after the first round.
In the second run, however, flickering light or flashes from photographers may have caused problems for the robots. The flickering light irritated the sensors and some robots were unable to find their way properly. And the robots ran into the reeds (i.e. outside the programmed route). Our robot couldn’t find its way back properly either: we were therefore somewhat perplexed and disappointed.
In the end, we still took 2nd place and were very pleased and happy. The boys in our class will be jealous. None of them had dared to take part in the competition. And our moms, who were informed by the dads via WhatsUp, prepared our favorite meal for us.
The next day there was an article about us in the Landbote, which particularly pleased our parents.
The UMO girls – Sophia and Valeria
Comment from WRO CH: Dear UMO Girls, you did a great job! We very much hope that you will be back again next year.
Your blog post also includes a video of the great run at the Regio. However, we will only post this after the Swiss final so that other teams don’t simply copy your solution.
