FESTO Robotino Training Well Attended

Sam Wane, senior lecturer in robotics arranged free training from Festo using the Robotino in the Octagon on 23-24th November.

The training was to assist UK Universities in competing in the Mobile Robotics the UK Final of which will take place on 29th June - 1st July 2011 at Middlesex University

The event ws very popular with a number of universities and colleges participating at Stafford.   These were Middlesex University, Staffordshire University, University of York, Coleg Llandrillo, Shrewsbury College, Neath Port Talbot College, Birmingham City University, Coleg Sir Gar.

The competition is intended for a team of two competitors working and/or training towards relevant programmes of study in mobile robotics. Competitors can be in education and training or working in industry.

The competition, sponsored by FESTO, will take place over two days and consists of programming a FESTO Robotino® and constructing a robot to undertake a range of challenging tasks.

To enter the competition each team requires a FESTO Robotino® which competitors must be able to program to:

Solve practical operational problems
Carry out mobile robot system design
Assemble a mobile robot according to the manufacturer’s specifications
Design a control program
Connect a mobile robot to its control system – Commission a mobile robot to carry out its correct function
Interpret hard copy/electrical forms from manufacturer’s documents

FESTO are a German company who are responsible for a number of innovative robots such as Autonomous Flying Penguins.