I recently had the opportunity to watch my son (and his teammates) represent his school in a drone flying competition called the Malaysian Techlympics. We (and other parents) were notified just two weeks before the match and the school had no equipment for training because this is the first time they participated and the school itself is just one year old.
Luckily the participants were from the Robotics Club where they meet once every week to train to code Lego robots so they’re familiar with the block diagrams and how electronics and motors work. Then we bought a drone set similar specifications to the ones in the competition and started searching for past year videos shared by participating schools/teams.
The challenges were obstacle avoidance, delivering items with the drone programmed to identify QR codes and land/take off at designated points. The children met thrice before the competition and rested well the night before the actual match. As you might already expect, the team didn’t get a place on the podium but they gained a lot of experience. I was notified these nine year olds were up against ten to twelve year olds and some were champions of past years – so its a relief for me and I’m proud they put up quite the fight.
Yeah, we were underdogs this time. Hopefully there’s another chance next year and we’ll come back stronger.
Cheers 🥂 MFR