By Laura Resnick
Haifa, Israel - The gold ball bounced forlornly downward. The stapler stuck to the ground. But the big, black boot made it to the top, winning the annual Technion university robot contest - a scientific competition with a sense of humour.
The event, called TechnoBrain, brings out the inventive and creative talents of students, who try to fulfil a tongue-in-cheek robotic chore with appropriate technical and design flare.
Each team of contestants designs and builds a robot that has to perform a specific job. The designated task, which changes every year, is announced three months before the contest and is often based on a spring holiday or event.
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| A robot that resembled a giant stapler never got off the ground |
This year, in honour of Israel's Independence Day on May 3, each robot entered in TechnoBrain had to climb a thin, 30m high rope that extended from the ground to the top of the university's Amado Architecture Building.
Once at the top - and not a moment before - the robot had to unfurl and raise a flag to commemorate Israeli independence. Each robot had only one minute to complete the task.
The competition was divided into two age groups: high school students and university students.
Although the contestants who built the 18 competing robots abided by the rules prohibiting human intervention once each machine was set in motion, some of them did jump up and down a lot, while others pulled their hair or called out encouraging comments to their creations.
A robot named "Mechanical Jesus: The Messiah Strikes Back" won the competition among the high schoolers. The robot's 16-year-old builders, Yotan Rossenblat and Tomer Fridel of the ORT Holon school near Tel Aviv, said the name is a tribute to the robot of the same name they built for last year's contest, when robots had to cross over water and pour wine, in honour of the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Rossenblat and Fridel placed second last year - hence the subtitle added to the name of this year's Mechanical Jesus, which looked more like a long, black boot with a spoked steering wheel at the bottom.
Despite passionate creators and interesting designs, this year's competition got off to a rocky start when the first eight mechanical contestants were unable to ascend more than a few metres.
A robot that resembled a giant stapler never got off the ground, and another robot flung itself straight into the unforgiving wall of the Amado building and then fell motionless to the ground.
The sleeper entry of the day was Rafael and Ruhama Fadida's "Mongol Fair." Although it didn't make the highest ascent of the competition, the enormous, shiny-gold, balloon-shaped robot made a respectable showing and won a special prize for creativity.
Peleg Harel, 30, a mechanical engineering student at Technion, won the 10 000 shekel (about R13 000) first prize in the university section for the second year in a row.
While enthusiastically explaining the operational dynamics of his winning robot, which bore close resemblance to a couple of fishing rods attached to a flag by a hairclip, Harel implored journalists to convey his delighted thanks to Dremel, the American company that donated building materials for his project this year.
"We are very proud of everyone's efforts," said Technion spokesperson Amos Levav at the end of the competition.
"The contestants are all busy students who build these wonderful robots every year with very little time or money to spare." - Sapa-AP
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