The RoboCup of Team Ikaro from Pacinotti Archimede in Rome.
Upon returning from RoboCup Junior 2024, held on July 17-21 in Eindhoven, Prof. Paolo Torda is very satisfied with the experience and results of his students from the Pacinotti-Archimede School in Rome. Unfortunately, technical problems did not allow the team to place well in the individual competition, but this was more than compensated by the joy of placing third in the Super Team Category in which teams from different country play together. Congratulations to the students, who after their victories at RomeCup 2024 and the national RoboCup 2024 selection held in Verbania, once again won the Light Weight Category.
“In the SuperTeam Category, we were put together with a Japanese team and a Croatian one, and despite the festive confusion there was a wonderful and fruitful climate of collaboration, with a healthy desire to excel. It was incredible to see the students exchange suggestions and ideas with the Japanese team despite the language barrier. The atmosphere of a large and participating audience (3 thousand people!), who paid for the ticket to watch the matches in the modern and welcoming sports hall of Eindhoven, was beautiful,” Prof. Torda told Onelia Onorati, a few days after the closing of the event. A modern and professional concept of the matches, which raised the performance level of considerably.
Francesco D’angelo (team leader, system designer, mechanic and chassis designer), Flavio Crocicchia (software developer and camera software developer) and Lorenzo Addario (second software developer and camera software developer), in their fourth year at the Pacinotti Archimede School in Rome, worked hard for this result. Their self-built robot is excellent: apart from the engine, the students worked with the teacher on all the technology, from sensors to printed circuits, including the chassis and the structure, also thanks to 3D and laser printers.
In short, a very relaxed atmosphere, but there was no lack of stadium-like cheering. “From the cautious atmosphere of the first competitions, we quickly moved on to friendship and competition between challengers. And the number of girls is growing year after year. I noticed several all-female teams,” points out Prof. Torda. A different climate from the early stages of this adventure called robotics, which for the professor dates back thirty years when, at the beginning of his career, he and two other teachers took part in Italian competitions. “Some colleagues and I read an article about a robotics competition organized by the Sant’Anna University in Pisa and decided to participate with a self-built robot. From there, we proposed the first competitions to the most interested students at the John von Neumann and Pacinotti Archimede Schools in Rome, where I taught with other interesting teachers, which turned into the first incredible adventures in Pisa.”
The following step was the competitions organized independently by the two Roman schools, the “robofeste.” The spirit of competition drove both performances and results. The students shifted into turbo mode on and excited one another. “Then, there were our initial contacts with the Fondazione Mondo Digitale that first proposed the organisation of a demonstration at the “Parco della Musica” Auditorium and then that of the first RomeCup [see the research conducted during the 2005-06 school year]. The event, on which we collaborated and still collaborate, maintains the same rules as the first competitions. Little by little the categories grew in number and participation; indeed, at the beginning only junior and senior explorer robots competed”.
In 2003, teams also began participating in the RoboCup Junior thanks to the recommendation of Sapienza Professor Daniele Nardi. Finally, secondary school students were also competing. The next kick-off will be at the RomeCup 2025, before the Italian championship in Pescara and finally, in case of qualification, in the European championship in Bari. The World Cup? “This year it will be held in Brazil! We hope to find a sponsor!” concludes Torda. And the hope is to fly overseas with these kids who always deserve it.
