R2T2 Caribbean and America

Get a Thymio

R2T2 Caribbean and America

Proposed by EPFL, ESPE Martinique, Inria

Where: Caribbean and America

Public: General public

Age: 8 - 15

When: Tuesday 24 January

Price: Free

Video streaming of a R2T2 event

Streaming video from Guyane

The story : Rescue Mission on Mars!

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 experts on Earth need to program the robots to solve the task. We have been able to recruit 16 teams of experts from the caribbean; Martinique and from North America; Québec, United States, Louisiana and New York.

The R2T2 Event

There have been previous R2T2 events dating from 4 November 2015. Participating countries were Switzerland, Italy, Australia , Russia and South Africa and on the 2 November 2016 with the participating countries Switzerland, Italy, Russia and South Africa. See here for the last events of 2015 and 2016 for more information.

A few hundred young persons between the ages of 8 and 16 years teamed up in groups to program 16 Thymio robots for a distance from different countries. Not really a competition between the teams but a challenge anyway to overcome any difficulties. There is also an individual challenge, one has to give of ones best listen to others and work together in a team.

A video presentation of R2T2by Pr. Francesco Mondada au Colloque Robotique et Éducation 2016 de Bordeaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD0uTdt7SL8
Another video presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBSWb5XWf_E

The Station, The 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 is physically located at L'EPFL in Lausanne Switzerland, it is recorded and the video recordings are available on live streaming on Youtube for the different teams of the different countries and their robots.

Each team controls a robot at a distance via the internet. The transmission delay for the video of several seconds replicates a real delay that exists between Mars and Earth of from 3 minutes to 21 minutes compelling the junior robot engineers to work as much as possible in an autonomous manner.

The Teams

The activity of VPL programming should be well suited for children between 8 and 15 years old, but these are just suggestions. Children much younger or those much older could very well join in and enjoy the event. A team consist of from 5 to 6 members. The best would be to have a team composed of :

One child in charge of communication: check what is going on in the Martian base, communicate (in French or in English) with the other teams, check what the others are saying.
One children in charge of the strategy: when one should to be ready to do what, which sequence of actions should be performed, how to coordinate with others, how to split programs, prepare local environments for tests.
Three or four children in charge of programming: implementation of the strategies in a set of programs, local tests, then download, execution.

One could also imagine that the groups interchange functions during the event, so that each child can try out different roles.

Les équipes participant à l'événement R2T2 de janvier 2017 (liste provisoire)

Organisation des équipes :

Margarida Romero, Faculté des Sciences de l'Éducation Université de Laval
Nathalie Méthélie, Université des Antilles, ESPE de Martinique
Didier Roy, Inria Bordeaux

The participating teams in the R2T2 event January 2017 (previsionary list):

Nom de l'équipe	Etablissement	Ville/Commune	Pays
Les fantastiques	Collège Stanislas Université de Laval EspaceLab	Québec	Canada
NERON	Collège Réeberg NERON	Rémire-Montjoly	Guyane
ELV1	Collège Edmond Lucien Valard	Saint-Esprit	Martinique
Quetzal	Université Virtuelle de l'Université de Guadalajara en collaboration avec Nética (Robotique et Education) et ATI (Technologie intégrée).	Guadalajara	Mexique
Balam	Université Virtuelle de l'Université de Guadalajara en collaboration avec Nética (Robotique et Education) et ATI (Technologie intégrée).	Guadalajara	Mexique
Robo-Freaks	Saint Mary's College	Castries	Sainte-Lucie
ELV2	Collège Edmond Lucien Valard	Saint-Esprit	Martinique
Power Girl	Collège Saint-Joseph de Cluny	Fort de France	Martinique
Piki	Université Virtuelle de l'Université de Guadalajara en collaboration avec Nética (Robotique et Education) et ATI (Technologie intégrée).	Guadalajara	Mexique
AGARANDE	Collège Henri AGARANDE	Kourou	Guyane
Les fabuleux	Collège Stanislas Université de Laval EspaceLab	Québec	Canada
ELV3	Collège Edmond Lucien Valard	Saint-Esprit	Martinique
Les filles en action	Collège Saint-Joseph de Cluny	Fort de France	Martinique
Tláloc	Université Virtuelle de l'Université de Guadalajara en collaboration avec Nética (Robotique et Education) et ATI (Technologie intégrée).	Guadalajara	Mexique
Legends	Bocage Secondary School	Castries	Sainte-Lucie
Les formidables	Collège Stanislas Université de Laval EspaceLab	Québec	Canada

L'aventure vue depuis la France avec l'équipe TTJ 92 avec Tralalere et Le Cube :

The child engineers solving space scenarios

Video introduction about the robot used in this event: Thymio

This video is in French. English, Italian, Russian and French subtitles are available. The video is 16 minutes long, but youtube allows to visualize it in accelerated mode (x1.5 or x2) keeping the audio understandable.