Learning through Practice: The Robot Rugby Design and Development for the Contest

Robotics plays an important role in daily life and education. To apply theoretical concepts to practice, this study aims to encourage students to use science, technology, engineering, and mathematics knowledge by designing and developing robots for a contest. Students had a chance to develop their practicing, critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills. In the contest, the theme was a robot rugby game. The game was designed as a team that had a captain and players. They were responsible for controlling a Pass Robot and a Try Robot. Each team could design its robots either manually or automatically. A Pass Robot had to pick up a rugby ball (Try Ball), pass it to a Try Robot, and place it to a goal. A Try Robot had to catch a rugby ball firmly, move it away from five defending obstacles, and place it at Try Spots. A team was able to get points by passing, receiving, placing, and kicking the balls accurately and following the game rules. A game would be ended after three minutes or the seven Kick Balls were used. The team designed two simple robots with a semiautomatic mechanism to complete the missions. As a result, our team could get full scores and complete all activities in time for the first match. In the final round, the team could get the winning award from the game. Moreover, the team also got the best creative award from the contest.