R2t2 4 11 2015
Proposed by NCCR Robotics, SATW, ASSISIbf, mobsya
Where: EPFL and around the world
Public: Other
Age: 6 to 16 y.o.
When: 4/11/2015
Price: -
The story
We are in 2032. A meteorite has damaged an important Martian power station and we need to assess the damage and restart the main generator. We have 16 robots on site. Each robot can be controlled by a team of engineers and space experts from Earth. Between Mars and Earth there is a delay in video transmission (between 3 minutes when Mars is closest and 21 minutes when Mars is farthest from Earth in its orbit) and direct remote control is impossible. Therefore the Earth experts need to program the robots to solve the task. We recruited 16 teams of experts from Switzerland, France, Austria, Italy, Russia and South Africa.
The event itself
On the 4th of November 2015 took place the first edition of the R2T2 event (for Remote Rescue using Thymio 2). This event regrouped 100 children from 6 to 16 to solve a collective programming challenge using 16 Thymio robots.
Station and mission
The Mars station is structured into four sectors. In each sector, four Thymio robots must carry out a mission structured in several steps: enter the station, find the control points, and then assess the state of the central generator with the robots of the other sectors. Here is a plan of the station and the steps of the mission:
The station, physically at EPFL in Switzerland, was filmed and the video flows were sent live on Youtube so that the different teams were able to see their robots.
Each team was controlling one robot and had to program it through internet. The robot was reacting instantly, but the video flow had 30 seconds of lag, obliging the children to program it so that it act autonomously!
This event was a great success and we are looking if and how to repeat it again in the future.
Main Youtube flow
Here, you will find the main Youtube flow with commentaries.
The first hour was dedicated to the connection of the teams to their robots, the event started at 1:02:00.
Press review
- Team Nancy, France, dans "L'Est Républicain"
- Team Fribourg, Suisse, dans La Liberté
- Team Sion sur canal9
- Mars Station EPFL sur Le Matin
- R2T2 sur Oxford Virtual
- Team Russia dans le journal de Korolev
- Team Russia aux nouvelles de la TV de la ville de Korolev
- Team Geneva, Suisse, dans Le Temps
- Team South Africa dans aBr Magazine
- L'évènement dans le Flash, journal interne de l'EPFL (p.25)
- "Alunni al pc, "blitz" su Marte", La Libertà (Italy) 20-11-2015.
- Team South Africa dans UKZNDABA online, la newsletter de l'université Kwazulu-Natal
- Team South Africa dans le magazine African Fusion
- Team South Africa dans le magazine abr Move
- Reportage vidéo sur l'évènement par SwissInfo (en anglais)
Link to more info, contact
![width="600px"](http://aseba.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images/thymioworkshop-en:r2t2-4-11-2015/width="600px"/medium.jpg)