Young Mexican students win robotics contest in Taiwan

A group of Mexican students from different education centers obtained three second places for different categories at the FIRA RoboWorld Cup 2018 in Taichung, Taiwan .

The LYNXBots team is made up of students from the Autonomous University of Querétaro (UAQ), the University Center campus and San Juan del Río, as well as the National Technological Institute of Mexico (TECNM) in Celaya, Guanajuato .

In the international robotics competition, organized by the International Federation of the Association of Robot-sports (FIRA) , Mexico’s team defeated its peers from 12 countries, including China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Canada, and Iran , among others.

LYNXBots won the silver medals in the categories of triple jump, archery, and basketball with humanoid robots designed with technology developed by the team, which has participated since 2013 in the global robotics fair .

In an interview with the Information Agency of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) , the student of the UAQ, Ruth Alejandra Suárez Rivera , said that the team had stood out during the contest, because they themselves had developed the technology needed for making the robots.

"For one of our robots, we decided to change part of the body to reduce the weight of the controller and the Raspberry card that we made for image processing, in addition to the battery," he said.

"We also adapt pieces on the shoulders and legs, to give the arms more freedom and make it functional in other competitions," he said.

For her part, the professor of the TECNM, Karla Anhel Camarillo Gómez , stressed that the team made robots with more economic materials, which compete with commercial robots, which usually cost around 300 thousand pesos .

"The robots were designed by the team to perform various tasks in competitions, with parts and engines coupled to be more powerful. We also used control cards," he said.

Camarillo Gómez said she was proud to have been among the first places, because they competed with robots manufactured by companies and not by students.

The team is composed of students Ana Elena Monroy Meza and Ruth Alejandra Suárez Rivera, David Jaramillo Arteaga, David Dorantes Carrizo, Michell Israel Vargas Signoret, Carlos Alberto Yerena Vera, and Luis Alberto Ortega Rodríguez, advised by professors, Karla Anhel Camarillo Gómez, Gerardo Israel Pérez Soto, and Luis Alberto Morales Hernández .

Mexican children learn about robotics in the U.S.

dm