In a study room of a double-storey house lies a multitude of coloured wires, boxes of screws, scattered circuit boards and miniature suspensions, complemented by a framed 1980s Apple Computer advertisement on a wall. One would be forgiven for thinking they have walked into Iron Man’s lair. It is, however, the home robotics laboratory of 16-year-old Rory Wade, a Canberra Grammar School student.
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Wade, based in Murrumbateman, along with teammates Joseph Ferguson and Ines Kusen recently came first in the ACT and Australian categories at the 2016 Young ICT Explorers (YICTE) national competition (year 9–10 division) in November in Sydney. The award was presented to the team for their innovative design of a rescue robot as part of a project. The trio describes the project as one that simulates a collapsed factory with human victims trapped inside, in which the robot must navigate the damage and locate the humans.
My dream job is to be a humanoid engineer, that’d be the coolest thing.
- Rory Wade
The wins are an improvement for Wade who, along with Kusen, won the same division in the ACT and placed third in the national competition in 2015. As part of the wins, the trio also received $350 each.
Robot design proves versatile
Wade said winning at YICTE was unexpected as the robot was originally designed for another purpose.
“We built the robot first for Robocup competitions and then repurposed it for the ICT competitions – which meant we did extra work on top of what we built for Robocup,” he said.
The robot includes what Wade calls a Mechanical Articulated Suspension System (MASS), which he began designing in early 2016. This mechanism allows the robot to maintain four points of contact with the ground even when maneuvering across large debris on the rescue field.
“MASS was built to be innovative and be able to be commercialised for educational purposes. We’ve tried to make it very versatile and functional,” he said.
In July 2016, the trio competed in the Robocup Junior International final in Leipzig, Germany, where Wade received a prestigious Flower Robotics Design Award for the robot’s general aesthetics of the robot and the MASS component. This was the first time a junior competitor received the award, which was judged across all leagues of the competition, including worldwide universities.
Success provides early career start
Wade’s robotics success also led him to obtain work experience with Perth-based Wes Trac in October, where he gained insight about managing a large fleet of autonomous vehicles used in the mining industry across the world.
“They took me all around their HQ and showed me big machineries they were maintaining. It was great, it was cool to see all the technologies they’re adding to their autonomous vehicles,” he said.
Asked about his future, he did not hesitate in saying he will continue in robotics and computer science.
“I’m designing a website at the moment for Kid Technic and I’m enjoying that but my dream job is to be a humanoid robot engineer, that’d be the coolest thing,” he said.
