The 'Peñaflorida' Hero Robot: Built by kids to teach kids

A few days ago, a military robot from the United States broke two world speed records—for robots and humans. But in the Philippines, kids are making robots to help people diet, curate museums, mitigate oil spills —and even help teach out-of-school youth.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the android version of 2009 CNN Hero of the Year, Efren Peñaflorida: 

 

 

The "Hero" robot was just one of finalists of the Open Category in the 11th Philippine Robotics Olympiad (PRO) help at SM Cyberzone in SM North Edsa Annex on Sept. 5 (Preliminaries) and Sept. 7 (Finals).   PRO is an annual competition between students from all over the country to create and program robots, towards developing the students’ critical thinking, creativity and ingenuity.

 

“Through the PRO, we do not only see the great potential of our students and the vast opportunities that the country can explore to continue providing the best educational resources to our students,” said Mylene Abiva, PRO national organizer, in a statement.

 

Over 400 public and private elementary and highschools participated in three categories: Robot Soccer, Regular Category and Open Category. The winners of the contest will represent the Philippines in the World Robotics Olympiad in November 9 to 11 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“We also put forward the best minds that we have in the Philippines that can be at par with the best of the world,” said Abiva.

 

Open Category

 

In line with this year’s theme, “Robots Connecting People,” two elementary school teams and ten highschool teams showcased self-crafted robots to the judges. Each robot was judged according to the overall value of the project, programming, engineering design, presentation, and the presenter’s teamwork.

 

Because only two teams that qualified for the elementary level, both will automatically join the international competition on November. Dr. Yanga’s Colleges Inc. (DYCI) got the second place for their museum curator robots, while the Grace Christian College won the top prize for their "Diet Robot Trainer".

 

Rey Allen Infanta, a sixth-grade student from DYCI said, “Museum curators are usually boring. We wanted them to connect better to the people, especially to the kids that is why we created our robots.”

 

Meanwhile, in the highschool category, a chocolate matrix robot from Cavite National Highschool clinched the third spot.

 

“People easily felt their mouths watering coming to (the) booth,” said Abiva during the awarding.

 

In second place was Grace Christian College’s Angry Birds-inspired robot which Abiva called “Angry Balls.”

 

For the third time in a row, kids from Bulacan’s DYCI topped the Open Category with their “Kariton Robolution” and recycled materials-clad robot named “Hero” after Efren Peñaflorida. The team said they used discarded aluminum and peanut butter bottle caps for the robot.

 

“Statistics showed that there are a lot of out-of-school youths in the Philippines. Inspired by Efren Peñaflorida, we created a robot that could help us reach out to them better,” Chelsea Andrea Morales said.

 

“We feel relieved,” said the teary-eyed Morales after the awarding. She is a third-year student of DYCI, and a second-timer for the World Robotics Olympiad. Her first time to compete was November last year, with teammate Claire Receli Reñosa in Abu Dhabi. They bagged 4th place at that competition.

 

Trisha Carmela Santos, also a third year student, on the other hand competed earlier this year in St. Louis, Missouri, USA for the FIRST Lego League, together with nine others from their school. 

 

Robot Soccer

 

For the Soccer category, each three-member team was tasked to design robots that could play soccer on a table.

 

From the nine team finalists from seven high schools, three were chosen to represent the country in the upcoming international competition in Kuala Lumpur.  The Philippines' representatives are Nemecio Yabut Elementary School of Makati City (3rd place), Philippine Science Highschool-Bicol (PSHS-Bicol) Team A (2nd place), and PSHS-Bicol Team B (1st place).

 

Regular Category

 

While the Robot Soccer category was Bicol-dominated, the Regular category was Cebu- and Makati-dominated.

 

This category challenged students to program their robots to perform specific tasks while maneuvering an obstacle-filled table.

 

Out of the 38 elementary schools that competed, two teams from Cebu and one from Metro Manila will be carrying the Philippine flag come November in Malaysia.

 

In third place was De La Salle Zobel School Team B. Marie Ernestine School Team A from Cebu clinched second place, while Dr. Caridad Labe Education Centrex Team B claimed the top spot.

 

Rachel Labe, President of Dr. Caridad Labe Education Centrex said in an interview that, though it was not their first time to join PRO, it was their first time to win a major prize.

 

The two teams from Cebu are under the supervision of the Mactan Robotics Club, an organization of students, teachers and robotics enthusiasts in Mactan, Cebu.

Donald Dungog, mentor from the club said, “We realized that if we train only the students from our own schools, we will be limiting our potentials.”

 

Dungog also said that even if they represent different schools, they are in fact competing as one team, promoting robotics from their region.

 

Meanwhile, in the highschool level, schools from Makati City topped the list of 40 participating schools.

 

Tibagan Highschool Team A won the highest prize followed by Makati Science Highschool Team A, and Tibagan Highschool Team B. All of them will represent the country in November for the World Robotics Olympiad.

 

“There are certain challenges that the robot has to go through in the playing field. What is needed is the computer programming to be able to do the tasks and the engineering or the design of the robot,” said Abiva.

 

The 11th PRO was organized by Felta, a supplementary education materials producer and distributor in the Philippines, in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute.  — TJD, GMA News