2024 victors of the RoboCup Junior Spike Challenge
Contributed by Lisa Allum, Glasshouse Christian College
Our RoboCup team has triumphed once again, securing victory in the 2024 RoboCup Junior Spike Challenge, following their remarkable win in 2023.
This year’s competition was bigger than ever, involving 143 teams and a total of 439 students from around Australia. States and territories were divided into ‘pools’ for judging.
Our team – comprising Sean, Isaac, Jacob and Byron from Year 7 – was awarded first place in the Queensland, ACT and Tasmania division, earning the school a new Spike Prime LEGO set.
This year, teams were tasked with designing and programming a robot to represent the theme “A Moment in Time”.
Our team chose to portray the pioneering flights of the Wright Brothers, highlighting this groundbreaking achievement as a pivotal milestone in the evolution of aviation technology.
Through scrupulous research into the Wright Brothers’ first flights in 1903, the team created a robotic plane that closely emulated their design.
They meticulously incorporated features such as the three-axis engine, elevator control and wing-warping mechanisms. The robot even included moving propellers coded with “whirring” sounds, and a downward-facing LEGO figure to represent the brother piloting each test flight.
The team also diligently researched the duration and altitude of each of the four test flights, using precise scaling and sophisticated coding to accurately reflect these elements in their simulation. A rolling background, coded in Scratch, depicted the terrain at Kitty Hawk, further enhancing the plane’s movement and the overall realism of the simulation.
In addition to their tireless efforts building and programming the robotic plane, the team created a video and detailed learning journal that required deep reflection on their design process.
The team met early before school and worked through lunch times to collaborate, problem-solve and overcome challenges.
Their success is a testament to their hard work and ingenuity.
Congratulations to Sean, Isaac, Jacob and Byron.
They were certainly the Wright Brothers for the job!
