Year 6 students from Melrose Park Public School in Sydney have won the RoboCup national championship in Brisbane

After claiming the state title NSW RoboCup Junior soccer competition in August, Year 6 students from Melrose Park Public School claimed the national crown at the 25th RoboCup National Championships in Brisbane.

The Melrose Public team, ‘Marvellous Melrose, spent two days competing with the best robotics teams from across Australia, topping the ladder in the pool rounds before winning the 3-0.

Pam Grover, the school’s robotics coordinator, said team members Shaun, Menzies, Ryan and Ziah had spent many hours coding and refining their robots to get them to a winning standard.

“The boys demonstrated exceptional teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving skills,” she said.

“Their dedication and hard work throughout the season paid off, winning the national title in the Simple Simon soccer challenge.

“It was an honour to be their mentor for the event and an exciting time for us all.”

The RoboCup requires competitors to design, build and program two robots to compete in a dynamic game of soccer against an opposing pair of robots.

“The robots must be fully autonomous, employing a variety of sensors to find the ball, point in the right direction, and stay inside the playing area,”
Mrs Grover said.

“For the Simple Simon division, teams use Lego parts alongside infrared sensors to recognise the ball.”

Marvellous Melrose team member Menzies said the students initially had no thought of winning the challenge.

“Then we went to the National RoboCup and absolutely smashed it,” he said.

Menzies said he would love to see more students doing robotics and said it was an amazing opportunity.