Markham kids show off robotics skills in South Korea
Robot warriors
Jonathan Ara Yapeter and Maaran Murugathas took home a medal from the recent International Robot Olympiad in South Korea. They are Grade 7 students at John McCrae Public School.
Markham Economist & Sun
Robots are more than machines in sci-fi films. In the real world, robots are used on assembly lines to do work more efficiently and even in firefighting.
Two young people from Markham hope to be part of this fascinating industry.
Robots the Grade 7 John McCrae Public School students designed, programmed and built drove across tables without falling off and moved Ping-pong balls from a tabletop into a container at the 14th annual International Robot Olympiad in South Korea.
Jonathan Ara Yapeter and Maaran Murugathas took home a bronze medal after they entered two competitions, one timed, the other technical.
In the first event, they were given three hours to build a robot from scratch and program it to do a specific mission given on the spot.
Hundreds of students from 18 countries including the U.S., Mexico, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, took part in the event.
The Markham boys had to program and build a robot from scratch that could pick up Ping-pong balls and put them into a cylindrical container.
Their robot raced through the simulated task of moving tiny people — represented by the ping-pong balls — from a disaster area and placing them in a hospital.
“This is like a real life mission just on a smaller scale,” Jonathan said.
In the second event, competitors picked a topic and built a robot to match.
Maaran and Jonathan developed a robot designed to take and process tissue and DNA samples while a doctor examines you.
The pair have been participating in Robofest events in Canada and the U.S. since they were both in Grade 4.
Their hope is one day, technology and robotics will be part of everyday life.
“This is the future,” Jonanthan said. “Engineers are using it. And now we know something about it and are doing something with it.”
It all starts with a wall of ideas, then a robot prototype and then a program that will transform a robot kit made from lego to life.
Commands such as ‘go’, ‘stop’ and ‘back up’ are translated into a visual programming module where digital blocks or codes placed in sequence are used to program the robot’s movements. The robot is then synced with the program via bluetooth.
There is a lot of trial and error, working until the prototype matches the program, Maaran said.
The pair was the only team representing Canada at the Olympiad. “There are other countries ahead of us,” Maaran said.
South Korea is one such place, where firefighters use robotics to put out fires, find people trapped in burning buildings and determine the origin of the fire, Maaran said.
