Saturday Morning

Get in a bit early, as there are some important matches for us today.
Jie soon finalises his team strategy for the day, and uploads it to
the tournament computer, which gives us time to look around the hall a
bit more. There are a few robot fish in a paddling pool, which
aparently they use to demonsrate waer polo. (The fish design seems
similar to that developed at Essex University.) Although most of the Junior Leagues are winding down passions are still strong around the football tables, as the small robots there battle it out for supremacy. As the better legged robots are now the ones on display I'm really struck with how much they have improved over the last couple of years. The audience (many of whom have paid to come and watch today) obviously agree, as the yells from them as the play progresses can be heard throughout the hall. Sony AIBOs (small robot dogs) certainly have the `cute factor' with everybody, although from a technical point of view I find the humanoids more interesting.

There are a couple of dozen trade stands within the hall. Some are focussed on `grown-up' robots, but a number are also from the Far East and selling robot kits aimed more at children. Again, it's pretty evident that science and technology are taken very seriously in this
part of the world. Microsoft are also demonstrating their `Robotics Studio' in a special lecture here; they've clearly got some interesting ideas, altough from our point of view it's a shame that it only runs on the Windows platform.

In another area of the Hall the rescue robot protoypes are going through their paces in a maze-like environment complete with lots of small obstacles and ramps. A standard design sems to be emerging, with a tracked vehicle with extra caterpillar tracks that can be lowered to help in particularly tricky situations. Back in the simulation area Julians latest run - where he is trying to find `casualties' in yet another setting - doesn't go as well as earlier in the week, and he ends up with a 7th place overall, and no more competitions to play tomorrow. Jie's late-night changes to his 2D team result in two genuinely thrilling mactches against two of the favourites for the championship, but in both cases he loses the matches by small margins. He will have one more placing game tomorrow, but there's no point trying to refine the team further. (Until the next competition.)