Three Roman eighteen-year-olds are the world champions of soccer robot programming. Davide Aloisi, Lorenzo Di Donato and Simone Petrangeli, who have just graduated from Itis Galilei in Rome, won the RoboCup Junior Competition in the Soccer Open Weight Secondary category to the great satisfaction of their coach, Paolo Torda.
Twenty-four teams from 15 countries (6 European) competed in the Soccer Open Weight Secondary category. Italy was also represented by the Marconi New Football Team from Domodossola.
“Our team was created in 2011,” explain the champions, “when our computer science teacher asked us if we wanted to participate in a robotics course.” So, how does robotics work? Are there leaders? “Our team has no leaders,” the students point out. “Davide is the software engineer, Lorenzo, who is a mechanical engineer, is in charge of hardware and Simone, another hardware specialist, takes care of all the scientific documentation.”
Team SPQR also place first at the RomeCup and placed third in the prestigious Space Apps Challenge, the hackathon organized by Nasa.
The two robots, Mida e Gordio, were built in 2012, but have since been continuously modified to improve their characteristics. One is an attacker and the other a defender. Each robot must weigh no more than 1.1 kg.
Congratulations!
