The Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) is planning to hold an annual robotics competition among the country’s science high schools.

The competition would allow science high school students to show their prowess in creating a robot, in the same manner as “Larry Labuyo,” the robot created by a group of students from the Philippine Science High School in Quezon City, which joined the prestigious FIRST Robotics competition in Hawaii and Atlanta, Georgia in the US.

The competition is set to be officially announced sometime in June or July, in time for the upcoming National Science and Technology Week (NSTW).

SEI Director Ester Ogena said the robotics competition is aimed at encouraging young science high school students to pursue technical courses related to the creation of robotics, particularly in the areas of software programming, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering.

Ogena said the Philppine robotics team recently sent abroad with “Larry Labuyo” are examples of young people working together to build a complex machine. “Obviously, our intention is to develop communities among our students.”

Ogena said the SEI is stil finalizing the guidelines for the competition. She said that the development kit for each school participating in the competition would have to be composed of parts mostly purchasable from local shops.

“We’re still working on what the development kit would have. They won’t have to be expensive but they have to be workable,” Ogena said.

By Andrew Beatty
Agence France-Presse

CROFTON–A robot named Cosmo has become six-year-old Kevin Fitzgerald’s unlikely ally in his uphill everyday battle with developmental difficulties.

At a strip mall clinic in suburban Maryland, Kevin is at the unlikely intersection of new efforts to treat symptoms of autism, cerebral palsy and other developmental disorders with robotics and computer work.

Here, he scrambles onto a swivel chair to examine a half-metre- (1.6-feet-) tall robot on the table in front of him.

Prodding four brightly-coloured buttons near the robot’s feet, he directs a cartoon version of the machine around a computer monitor, furtively glancing up at the real thing for encouragement.

Kevin showed the first signs of learning difficulties when he was 18 months old, and was later diagnosed with developmental dyspraxia.

“It is like having a stroke,” his mother Patty Fitzgerald said. “His brain is intact, but his body doesn’t do what he wants it to do.”

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Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.NET

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines took home the silver medal at the recently held World Robot Olympiad 2008 in Yokohama, Japan.

The Philippine team known as “Gracean Whizkids” from Grace Christian Elementary School beats 21 other schools.

The team is composed of Joseph Aldrin Chua, Edrich Hans Chua and Dominique Hannah Sy. They were coached by Melanie Tizon and Warren John Ong Pe.

Their project, dubbed “The G-Tech Robot Engineering a Better World,” included 12 different types of robots doing various types of activities to save the environment.

The Open Category required contestants to create robots under the theme, “Saving the Global Environment.”

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

THE REMOTELY Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV), better known as a submersible, has become the stuff of movies, ever since it was used in some scenes in “Titanic.” It found a lot of applications in the underwater research, mining and salvaging sectors. One Filipino company aims to be a player in this industry.

Pobletech Inc. recently released the Roboteknik i100, country’s first commercial ROV, a robotic machine that can submerge to a depth of up to 100 meters and be guided via a remote control box. The ROV and control box are all connected via an umbilical cord that serves as both the power and data cable for the ROV, which transmits live streaming videos to a monitor on the control box.

Here’s a video I took of Michael Poblete, CEO of Pobletech, shows off the Roboteknik.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

GRACE Christian High School won a gold medal at the 6th World Robot Olympiad held on Nov. 18 in Taiwan. The team’s project called Operation Security Guaranteed is composed of a city diorama that has a group of security-based robots that fight fire, catch criminals and ensure building protection from would-be terrorist attacks.

The Grace Christian High School team is composed of Bryan Lao, Alyssa Sheena Tan and Mark Ian Tan. They won the gold medal in the Open Category for the Junior Level.

The team also presented their winning entry at the newly opened Science Discovery Center at the SM Mall of Asia.

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