Aspiring young engineers and university students from across the world have battled it out in the annual RoboMaster competition - coinciding with plans by heliguy™ to teach children valuable coding and programming skills and to make robotics relevant and exciting.
heliguy™ - the UK's leading drone expert - is keen to work with schools to promote and develop STEAM - the educational approach to learning that uses science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue and critical thinking.
Utilising our experience in the industry and understanding how important AI (artificial intelligence) and computing is becoming for students, we want to fuel children's interests in robotics by using DJI's recently-released RoboMaster S1 mini tank and the Tello EDU drone - perfect for taking STEAM learning to the next level in an engaging and captivating way.
And the final of the annual RoboMaster contest - which was staged recently - was a timely way of demonstrating just how fun, exciting and rewarding robotics and computing can be; with high-tech robots going head to head in a futuristic battlefield and the winning team netting a cool 500,000 Chinese Yuan (the equivalent of just under £59,000).
RoboMaster 2019 Competition Showcases The Future Of Robotics
RoboMaster is sponsored and supported by DJI and the 2019 competition concluded in Bao'an Stadium in Shenzhen, China, earlier this month.
RoboMaster is one of the world’s most advanced robotics competitions, combining innovative engineering, gaming, and entertainment into one action-packed spectator event.
This annual competition was designed for teams of aspiring engineers to build next-generation robots and compete for intellectual supremacy.
Each team has six different types of robots, including the Standard, Sentry, Hero, Aerial, Engineer, and Supplier. These robots work together on an obstacle-filled battleground to take out the opponent’s base.
RoboMaster has gained popularity among the engineering community since its first year in 2015 and has provided a world stage for university students - from Mainland China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Macau - to pursue their passion for science and technology while showcasing their talent.
And this year's contest was no different. Close to 200 teams, consisting of 10,000 young engineers from around the globe, signed up for the 2019 contest. The best 32 teams went on to battle it out in the final tournament, which was aired on Twitch.tv, bringing this electrifying event online to global audience, with more than 1.95million online viewers tuned in from over 15 countries.
The winning team from T-DT Northeastern University - a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, America - took home the gold trophy, along with RMB 500,000 as the grand prize.
'RoboMaster Gave Us A Chance To Play With Cool Technology'
Faqi Wang, captain of the victorious Northeastern University, has explained how the RoboMaster competition has given him and his team the chance to put their passion for science and technology into action.
He said: "It has been an exciting and fruitful experience for the team in the past nine months.
"RoboMaster gave us the opportunity to put theoretical learning into practice, play with cool technology, and create something real. To see our robots come to life and be able to compete with so many different teams is an amazing feeling."
Meanwhile, Jianrong Gao, RoboMaster’s tournament director, said that RoboMaster was a great platform for young, aspiring engineers to celebrate their talent and achievements.
"We’re truly proud of the dedication and hard work from all the teams and we congratulate the champions for putting on such an amazing performance,” he said.
"By combining innovative engineering, gameplay and entertainment into an action-packed event, RoboMaster has become an anticipated robotics competition for young engineers and roboticists around the world. It also creates a great platform for young, aspiring engineers to celebrate their talent and achievements.
"What students learned throughout the competition will allow them to expand their creative vision and develop solutions that could one day have real-world applications.”
heliguy™ Wants To Use Cool Robots To Inspire The Next Generation Of Engineers
RoboMaster has grown into an internationally recognised platform, providing a new framework for approaching education.
Building on this foundation, heliguy™ is committed to working with schools to help develop the culture of engineering and education for upcoming generations and to promote the importance of STEAM learning.
As the UK’s biggest DJI direct retailer in Europe, heliguy™ intends to teach these crucial skills and fuel children’s interests in these subjects by using DJI’s newly-released RoboMaster S1 mini tank (below, left) and the Tello EDU drone (below, right).
Both of these state-of-the-art machines are perfect for taking learning to the next level in an engaging and captivating way.
DJI RoboMaster S1
The RoboMaster S1 is a game-changing educational robot built to unlock the potential in every learner.
Inspired by DJI’s RoboMaster robotics competition, the S1 provides users with an in-depth understanding of science, maths, physics, programming and more through captivating gameplay modes and intelligent features.
Designed to let users dive into the world of robotics, programming and AI, the S1 supports omnidirectional movement, gel bead launching, and provides an immersive FPV (first person view) driving experience.
Some of its most quirky features include the S1 Blaster, which uses LED lights to outline launch trajectories for its gel beads and infrared beams. Vivid sound effects and recoil action add to the experience for an immersive battle simulation.
Thanks to AI technology, the S1 recognises gestures, sounds and even other S1 robots. For instance, the S1 can be programmed to automatically follow a line on the ground. The more maths and physics knowledge that is applied, the more adeptly the S1 will be able to complete this task.
DJI Tello EDU
Tello EDU is an impressive and programmable drone perfect for education. You can easily learn programming languages such as the aforementioned Scratch and Python, as well as Swift.
With an upgraded SDK 2.0, Tello EDU comes with more advanced commands and increased data interfaces. Complete with DJI’s flight control technology, Tello EDU also supports Electronic Image Stabilisation.
Users are able to write code to command multiple Tello EDUs to fly in a swarm. Operators can also increase their programming precision by having the Tello’s fly over Mission Pads or perform flips and other acrobatic movements. Put simply, Tello EDU improves your programming skills while pushing the limits of your creativity.
Meanwhile, access to video stream data with Tello EDU creates more possibilities for image processing and AI development. The new SDK 2.0 allows you to develop Tello EDU further, realising more AI functions such as object recognition, tracking, 3D reconstruction through programming, computer vision, and deep learning technologies.
Tello EDU also supports block programming. Simply drag coding blocks on the screen to program Tello EDU and enable certain movements. Additionally, the Tello Space Travel tutorial teaches you how to use the Swift programming language to code on your iPad while following a fun storyline.
heliguy™ Has Chalked Up Years Of Educational Support
Having launched more than a decade ago, award-winning heliguy™ has developed an industry-leading reputation for drone supply, support and aftercare, thanks to dedicated account managers, an expert training team and highly-skilled technicians and research and development consultancy – not to mention our large stock pool.
heliguy™ has a track record of working with universities and research teams, helping to drive forward learning, analysis and scientific study through drone technology. Examples include:
- Providing a DJI M600 Pro to a team of scientists - including Dr Kieran Wood, from the University of Bristol - to help complete the most comprehensive survey of Chernobyl’s Red Forest. Read more here and see first picture below.
- Supplying a DJI M210 for groundbreaking research to explore volcanic emissions in Papua New Guinea. Read more here.
- Integrating a LiDAR system with a DJI M600 Pro for the University of Newcastle. Read more here and see second picture below.
- Integrating a drone with a Sony A7R, thermal and MAIA multi-spectral camera for the James Hutton Institute for river surveys. Read more here.
- Providing equipment and industry advice to Dr Joseph Cook, a glaciologist at the University of Sheffield, who is exploring the impact of global warming on glacier and ice-sheet dynamics in the Arctic. Read more here.
- Supplying a DJI Phantom 4 Pro for the first drone count of Atlantic grey seal pups on the Farne Islands, off the Northumberland coast. Read more here and see third picture below.
Now we are working collaboratively with schools and DJI to encourage young people to embrace and understand advanced technology.
To find out more about these new and exciting products and our plans to work with schools, contact us by phone or email.
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