Hot from robocon factories

In less than a week, the draw for the 2007 Robocon qualifier in the southern region will begin. From home workshops to school grounds, robocon air is overwhelming, regardless of day or night .

Sprint

From the wide yard to the living room of Tran Quoc Vinh's house, students of Technology University (Ho Chi Minh City), many devices: battery charger, engine, aluminum rod, drill . The students called this the robocon factory since the group of nine students together shook hands to " swear " to play with the robot.

It is currently the final stage of the competition: having completed the rounds at the schools, the most ' war horses ' have been selected for battle from the end of April in the southern region qualifiers. Most factories, school grounds, sentences that SV-robocon are talking the most are 'motivated?'. They are sprinting to test engines for robots.

We met other SV-robocon groups at the robocon gym at the University of Technology and Technology. Tran Van Minh said that the team gathered here after school from 6 pm to 9-10 pm, then went to Kha Van Can, Thu Duc borrowed a friend's inn as a workshop. During the last week before this 'war', the group was asking for permission from the school to sleep again at the training ground to complete the robot.

Hutech group 03, University of Technology and Technology, at the Vinh Robocon workshop
on Le Quang Dinh Street, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Dang Tuoi)

According to Master Huynh Van Kiem, who has led the army of Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic University to win Robocon for many years, said: ' The unique way of robotics is to do it all the time, doing it all the time and never seeing it all .' Indeed, often heard from teams before playing for two days, even a day, the team scrambled to rob the robot to follow a new strategy.

Learn from failure

Most teams preparing for the South Robocon qualifier are ' bloody ' teams, thickening the Robocon arena.

The group of Tien, Vinh, Hutech03 team, University of Technology and Technology have three seasons come to Robocon. The first season is the ' second soldier ' for seniors to learn from. Last year Tien formed a group, won the second prize, narrowly went to the South region qualifiers. After that defeat, the group sat back and learned the experience: to professionalize the job as well as to define the goal. Each person is in charge of a major task, as Minh is comfortable; Vinh mechanical design and fundraising; Advanced programming .

Another experience is to know how to arrange time to complete the work one week in advance, rest comfortably before entering the competition. The experience of the Industrial Zone team according to Tran Van Minh is to focus on calculating the stability of the road, full of energy supply. Therefore, this year, IZ will reserve an energy source to avoid losing battle for this reason like last year. According to SV Tran Duc Hung, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, team spirit is also an important factor.

At the training ground of Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic University, members of the teams are " tumbling " back and forth in the yard, sticking out the lines. In this training ground, the school invested VND 65 million from the first year of Robocon (2002), each year an additional upgrade, as this year, the cost of pouring into the yard was VND 40 million.

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