RAM is an attractive robocon playground
From vivid memories of robocons, Mr. Ho Huu Tuong, a former student of Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted and The Q Robotics Club (TQR) nurtured the idea of RAM, a contest based on the motif of ABU Robocon. Mr. Huu Tuong and the members of TQR Club have been “preparing” for RAM since the summer of 2021. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 caused their plans to be postponed for a year.
“During that time, we were all disappointed. Although I had to temporarily put aside the dream of the robocon contest, the club members and I encouraged each other to wait one more year. Meantime, we continued to raise funds, recruit collaborators, and send invitations to RAM 2022 to students at high schools, colleges and universities in the province," said Mr. Huu Tuong.
Last August, TQR organized RAM for the first time. The playhouse area at Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted was filled with laughter from students in favor of robots. The robots of the 5 competing teams from Cao Thang High School (CTB1), Quoc Hoc High School for Gifted Students (MRA), Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Hue University (ROM) and Hue Industrial College (11B1 and 20TCDC12B) brought about thrilling and exciting matches.
With the theme of searching for heritage, the rules of RAM in 2022 revolve around the flag-hoisting ceremony and colored lanterns releasing. “From the starting area, the robots will compete with each other by completing tasks such as taking the flag, carrying it over the terrain slope, planting it in the flag area, moving over the obstacles, and finally taking the colored lanterns and releasing them into the center of the field. The team that completes all the above tasks within the shortest possible time is considered to claim the absolute victory,” Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Duong, Head of Content Department of RAM 2022, explained about the rules of the game.
Mr. Nguyen Quoc Thach, a student at Hue Industrial College, said that starting as strangers, he and his 11B1 Industry teammates gathered to research, build robots and nurture their dreams together.
“In the early days, we came up with the design ideas and received help from our teachers to realize it. Then, we assigned the work for each member to do in turn and gathered on the days when we did not have any lessons to assemble the parts of the robot together. Though the preparation time for the competition was not long, it was full of laughter since we could do what we liked the most,” confided Mr. Quoc Thach.
Though taking place only within 2 days, the first RAM tournament received the attention of many students who were passionate about technology. The hand-held robots of the competition teams performed well in tasks such as planting flags, releasing lanterns, and overcoming obstacles.
The matches often made fans nervous when the robots competed with each other on every millisecond. After intense competition, team 20TCDC12B from Hue Industrial College excellently won the championship.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, a member of team 20TCDC12B, shared that the teachers at the Electrical Faculty were the ones who inspired the whole team with the slogan: “Victory is only achieved when you defeat all”. Apart from that, the focus, solidarity, comfort and “subtle robot operators” helped the team win the championship.
Witnessing the "heroic" performances of the robots on the field, Mr. Huu Tuong couldn’t conceal his satisfaction: “Organized for the first time, RAM only drew the participation of 5 teams, but it attracted a lot of attention from pupils and students, which made me very happy and proud. In the coming time, RAM will continue to be held once every 2 years to provide teams and organizers with time to prepare more carefully so that they can bring many excellent robots to dedicate to exciting matches for the audience.”
Story & photo: Dang Trinh