Learning through Practice: The Robot Rugby Design and Development for the Contest

Robotics plays an important role in daily life and
education. To apply theoretical concepts to practice, this study
aims to encourage students to use science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics knowledge by designing and developing robots
for a contest. Students had a chance to develop their practicing,
critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills. In the
contest, the theme was a robot rugby game. The game was designed
as a team that had a captain and players. They were responsible
for controlling a Pass Robot and a Try Robot. Each team could
design its robots either manually or automatically. A Pass Robot
had to pick up a rugby ball (Try Ball), pass it to a Try Robot, and
place it to a goal. A Try Robot had to catch a rugby ball firmly,
move it away from five defending obstacles, and place it at Try
Spots. A team was able to get points by passing, receiving, placing,
and kicking the balls accurately and following the game rules. A
game would be ended after three minutes or the seven Kick Balls
were used. The team designed two simple robots with a semiautomatic
mechanism to complete the missions. As a result, our
team could get full scores and complete all activities in time for the
first match. In the final round, the team could get the winning
award from the game. Moreover, the team also got the best creative
award from the contest.