The Lithuanian robotics team Lituanica X, together with teams from Belize, Switzerland, and Botswana, was pronounced the winner of the FIRST Global Challenge of the World Robotics Olympiad on October 16 in Geneva, Switzerland. 162 teams from all over the world competed in the Olympiad. The Lithuanian team demonstrated its creativity, high programming skills as well excellent teamwork skills, and once again confirmed that Lithuania is a country full of talents who, in the spirit of co-creation, find solutions to challenges.
The absolute winner of the competition was a four-team alliance. Different teams were grouped into robot alliances during the play-offs and fought as a cohesive unit in the finals. This rule encourages teams to compete against each other on the robotics task floor while maintaining a spirit of cooperation and avoiding animosity.
During the competition, teams’ robots carried out missions in a special task field 6 metres long and wide. During the 2.5-minute matches, the robots had to collect as many 10 cm diameter hollow balls as possible out of the total of 240 balls as quickly as possible.
The robot had to deliver the collected balls to the team member waiting in the corner of the field, who was responsible for throwing the balls into a “basket”. The last 30 seconds were devoted to an additional task: the robot had to attach itself to a special crossbar.
All teams built their robots using the same components. This equalized the teams’ chances—in this competition the teams’ creativity and stubbornness made the difference rather than the availability of construction parts.
Lituanica X was founded in 2017 by enthusiastic robotics-loving students. Currently, the team consists of students from Vilnius Jesuit Gymnasium, Vilnius Lyceum, Vilnius VGTU Engineering Lyceum, Alytus Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas Gymnasium and Kaunas KTU Gymnasium. The team acts as a family community, open to all motivated students.
Winning the Olympiad opened the door for the team to compete in the best European team league in the Netherlands. The events will take place on 26-11-2022 and 28-01-2023. This competition has significantly fewer restrictions on the choice of robot components and still allows the use of object recognition and artificial intelligence applications.
The students hope that their participation in the global competition will strengthen the position of robotics in Lithuania and are happy to promote Lithuania’s name worldwide.
You can follow the team’s 5-year journey on the following channels:
Website: https://www.lituanicax.lt
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/lituanicaX
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDhAuyXQicQlXtyMGRMpFtg
