The finals of World Robot Olympiad (WRO) world robot construction and programming competition began on Friday evening in Győr with the participation of contestants from 74 countries. This is the first time the global competition has been held in Europe.

In his opening speech in the sports hall of the Széchenyi István University, Minister for Innovation and Technology László Palkovics said Hungary is offering its support for the final of next year’s competition to a country that is unable to take part in the Olympiad for financial reasons. Next year’s finals will be held in Canada.

“By doing so, Hungary would like to serve as an example, because everyone is a winner who takes part in the competition”, the Minister emphasised.

“Those who are comparing their knowledge in Győr until Sunday all have an interest in natural sciences and technology”, he highlighted. At the opening ceremony, the representatives of the 74 participating countries all marched onto the stage bearing their national flags.

President of the WRO judging panel Brent Hutcheson explained that the until Sunday participants will be performing various challenges within the field of robotics and robot construction.

The Olympiad’s participants will be competing in six age groups and four categories. A total of 2700 people, including their companions, arrived in Győr of the competition.

The teams build and programme their robots using Lego elements.

In the regular category, robots must traverse a previously determined track and perform various tasks. In the Open category, robots must perform tasks relating to a particular topic, which this year will be the smart city. In the Football category, robots play against each other, with the robot scoring the most goals being declared the winner. in the ARC (Advanced Robotics Challenge) category, the robots must be constructed and programmed using metal elements instead of Lego.

(MTI)