Engineering students compete in road-finding car race

Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phuoc, Head of the Department of Mechatronics - Cao Thang Technical College, said that this year's competition attracted 33 teams of first-year students and 22 teams of second-year students. Students formed groups (maximum 4 people) to design and program robots that can automatically navigate and overcome obstacles on a racing track model.

"This is how the school combines theory and practice. Through the competition, it will stimulate creative thinking, programming skills, and teamwork skills of students, thereby discovering those with qualities and passion for scientific research" - Dr. Phuoc emphasized.

Students must program the racing car to run according to the diagram specified by the organizers.

This is the second year that Cao Thang Technical College has organized the Road Research Racing Competition.

This year, the racing cars of the competing teams have many innovations and significant improvements. The Holy Swordsman team from class CDT22B "introduced" a racing car with a road recognition system using analog sensors, helping to enhance orientation ability.

MMT Team from class CDT22A impressed with their smart design and the speed of completing the race track of 16.8 seconds (breaking last year's record of 37 seconds). This was the only team with only one member participating, excellently winning first prize.

Pham Truong Viet Hoang, a student majoring in Mechatronics - the champion of this year's competition, said he designed an additional sensor system on both sides to help the robot car recognize when it deviates from the track, while also combining it with effective processing programming to help the robot make quick and accurate decisions.

"This is the second time I have participated in the competition. This year I feel like I have improved a lot. I spent more than 2 months to prepare the most satisfactory racing car with a cost of about 700,000 VND. The competition helped me gain more experience and learn how to apply knowledge in practice" - Hoang excitedly said.

The dramatic competition round for second-year students took place on the afternoon of May 24.

According to Dr. Phuoc, racing cars must follow a pre-planned route, using sensors to detect and handle situations such as turns, obstacles and dead ends. The maximum time to complete the race track is 2 minutes. The width of the line the cars must follow along the route is 28 mm, the total length of the route is 20 m.

"Next week, the school will organize the final round of the Road Racing for first-year student teams. The results of each team will be counted as 20% of the score for the Microcontroller subject for second-year students and the Programming Language subject for first-year students, which will encourage the students' spirit of learning and participating in research" - Dr. Phuoc acknowledged.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/sinh-vien-ky-thuat-tranh-tai-dua-xe-do-duong-196240524190331793.htm