UAE pupils win global robotics competition with flying drone

The team bagged the top spot in the open senior category at last month’s World Robotics Olympiad in Jakarta, Indonesia, marking the first time a UAE team has won the prestigious competition which attracts more than 1,000 students from 42 countries.

Athul Manojkumar, Farhaj Mayan, and Aravind Sreejith, students at Our Own High School, located in Al Warqa, took home first prize in a school robotics competition. Lee Hoagland/The National

DUBAI // A drone that can patrol the skies over historical sites to ward off looters, record video and drop emergency medical kits has won a UAE school top slot in a recent international robotics challenge.

Athul Manoj Kumar, 18, a student of Our Own High School, led a six-member team called Un-manned to build a robot that fused strong engineering and technical concepts with creativity.

The team won the open senior category at last month’s World Robotics Olympiad in Jakarta, Indonesia, the UAE’s first win in the prestigious competition that attracts more than 1,000 students from 42 countries.

“Before this students used helium balloons with small propellers that floated slowly. Our robot had more thrust and power,” said Athul.

“We tried to create something different, something that could fly – a quad copter with four propellers linked to a Lego structure.

“With cameras and speakers it can work as a surveillance unit and could be a first-response emergency unit.”

The theme of this year’s competition was World Heritage and students were asked to design a robot to protect any of the 900 sites overseen by the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

The students chose Machu Picchu in Peru because it faces the biggest challenge in protecting it from the one million people who visit it each year.

They worked for more than six months building a light metal frame, soldering wires, cutting telephone cables and attaching a motor, propellers and electronic chips.

In early attempts their Lego quad robot was either too heavy to fly or crashed because of uncontrollable speed.

As each propeller moved at a different speed, they had to create a programme to link the parts with the electronic chip to control the robot’s movement.

“Our biggest challenge was how it flies, and this is not part of your regular physics class,” said Farhaj Mayan, 17, who helped with programming.

“It was tough because we had to learn about new processors every time there was a small error.”

The team tested the machine inside the school’s auditorium before building a two-metre steel and wooden booth to safely contain the flying robot.

“We worked together and just months before we needed more parts, so the challenges kept growing,” said Arvind Sreejith, 17, another teammate.

In Jakarta, they faced competition from a Russian team that focused on 3D mapping, and a robot built for cave exploration by a South African school.

“And then just a day before the competition we figured how to programme an ultrasonic sensor to detect height so we could increase the throttle and fly it, maintain speed and slowly land without crashing,” said Athul.

Their project also included a 25-page report and a video presentation about how they aimed to protect Machu Picchu.

Teammates Rohan Ambali Parambil, Vikram Bhatia and Amal Madhu, all 17, pitched in to help with programming, sponsorship support and video backup.

Physics teacher K V Rama Rao said the students were an inspiration to younger pupils.

“They have developed problem solving, analytical and reasoning skills, plus creative and critical thinking,” said Mr Rao, who guided the team.

“They moved quickly from one software to another and changed models until they found what worked.”

Their effort has won widespread support in the UAE’s robotics community.

“It is great for kids in high school to find solutions to problems of powerful motors and figure out how to use lighter material,” said Farhad Oroumchian, associate dean of engineering at the University of Wollongong in Dubai.

“Their achievement is in finding and working around the robot’s weight and the speed and power of the motors.

“This will encourage other students to take up robotics. It challenges students to work on imaginative projects.”