Joint slovak-austrian robotic lecture

Bratislava / Wien, February 11th, 2010

A dozen of students from the three secondary schools in Bratislava (Gymnasium Grösslingová, Novohradská and Teplická) did participate at the first joint Slovak-Austrian lecture. The topic was really pioneering - robotics. The HTL Spengergasse in Wien is working in this hot area also involved in the Centrobot international project. They joined with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava to provide the organizational and professional sides of the activity.

Slovak students mixed within the Austrian class and listen two short lectures that put them into the issue. Since the common languages of the lecture were English and the Java programming language, there were no communication problems. After the theoretical introduction, students surprisingly discovered that today they will not only listen! They were asked to create a realistic model of the robot for transporting the material in factories. The robot should use black line painted on the floor for navigation. Each group received one of the advanced Lego Mindstorms kits and constructed a model equipped with motors, sensors and control computer. After short lunch (even most experienced teachers were impressed by the speed of its disappearing) they continued to complete the models. Then creators did start writing the 'soul' of the robot - its control program. Beginning with unbalanced movements of robots they were highly motivated and constantly improved. At the end of the lecture they were called for a small contest, and its winner received a small prize.

This event was a part of the project Centrobot carried under the Program of the cross-border cooperation Slovakia-Austria 2007-2013 financed by the ERDF. Organizers hope that the success will repeat also in following lectures to be organized to use the experiences learned from the first joint lesson of robotics.