- Team Texpand, Cape Town’s top robotics team, was crowned the South African Champions.
- The team is comprised of a diverse group of enthusiastic high school learner from various communities in the Western Cape.
- The National Championships was held at Parklands Secondary School in Table View on Saturday 17 February.
Team Texpand, Cape Town’s top robotics team, was crowned the South African Champions in an international robotics competition with over 9 000 teams competing around the globe, known as the First Tech Challenge (FTC).
The team is comprised of a diverse group of enthusiastic high school learners (ranging from 12 to 17 years old) from various communities in the Western Cape, including Pinelands, Mitchell’s Plain, Simon’s Town, Plumstead, Grabouw and Robertson.
The National Championships was held at Parklands Secondary School in Table View on Saturday 17 February, with 21 of the top teams from around the country robo-battling it out for the coveted top spot, which was eventually secured by this young team of engineers and programmers from the Mother City.
FTC is a competition for youth to learn and apply Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) skills in a fun, creative and competitive environment, said the team’s co-coach Michelle Buckle.
Each year, the competitors are faced with a brand new robotics game with various tasks and challenges that they must perform to outscore the opposing teams.
“This season’s challenge is called CenterStage and teams score points by collecting hexagonal pixels at various locations and placing them on an almost vertical backboard.”
Texpand’s CenterStage robot uses multiple sensors like odometry wheels for exact field positioning; distance sensors to optimise pixel placement on the backboard; cameras and image processing for identifying and aligning to objects; and gyro sensors to sense robot heading.
After winning the regional competition in January, Texpand came into the National Championships as a strong contenders to take the top spot.
They faced teams from Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Eswatini.
“Texpand selected the Creepy Crawlies (based in Pretoria) as their alliance partner for the finals and advanced to the semi-finals convincingly. In the finals, they faced the Alliance of Innovatrix (from Malmesbury) and Galactic Einsteins (from Worcester),” explained Buckle.
In the first of the final matches, Texpand led their alliance to a landslide victory and a South African national record scoring 216 to 80 points. This record proves that the Texpand robot is now on par with many of the best robots in the world.
“The atmosphere at the venue was electric as the official score was displayed on the screen. The Texpand team was overjoyed at being crowned SA champions for the second year in a row, and now they have been invited to compete in the World Championships in Houston, Texas, along with Creepy Crawlies.”
In Texas, the 200 top teams in the world will battle it out to be named the World Champion. With a few upgrades that Texpand plans to make over the next two months, they believe that they will be one of the top teams internationally and stand a chance to make it into the divisional finals at the World Championships.
“Now Texpand faces the challenge of raising support to make that dream of representing South Africa on the world stage possible. The invitation to participate comes with no financial support from the competition, and so Texpand is responsible for raising the necessary funds to cover the entrance fee of R40 000, plus accommodation and flights (around R35 000 per person) to take their place in the competition in mid-April,” the robotics coach continued.
To send a minimum team of four members and one coach, Texpand needs to raise a total of about R215 000. “To this end, Texpand is inviting corporate companies and individuals to sponsor the team to make South Africa proud. Meanwhile, they are still looking for a lead sponsor to invest in both the teams’ World Championship goal and the outreach vision in the community.”
They are also calling on fellow Capetonians and South Africans to get behind them to make this dream come true.
Those wishing to partner with them can visit the crowd funding link https://gofund.me/569fedb2, or visit their website www.texpand.org.za
