Since 2004, the World Robot Olympiad has been a key global science, technology and education event bringing together young people (up to age 19) to “develop their creativity and problem solving skills through challenging and educational robotics competitions.”
Think of it like the U.S.-based FIRST robotics competition but on a global scale. Schools are invited to enter a team of three students to participate in the World Robot Olympiad (WRO). Participating teams need to create, design and build a robot models that look s or behave like a human athlete. (See official video from last year’s WRO at bottom of this article.)
Expanding the scope of the event this year, National Instruments is working with the WRO to pilot a new competition at the 2013 event to be held November 15-17 in Jakarta, Indonesia. This new, collegiate-level competition, based on use of the NI LabView system, is a Mars colony-themed competition for students age 17 and up.
According to National Instruments, the WRO has used NI technology via LEGO MindStorms since the event’s founding in 2004. This new competition is designed to “open a new level of competition to give students an advanced programming option using the same software as professional engineers in virtually every industry.”
This new LabView-based competition will become an official part of the WRO competition in 2014, when it opens to all WRO member countries. Nearly 100 collegiate-level teams are participating in the pilot competition.
Watch the official World Robot Olympiad video from the 2012 competition below.
