Robots will be racing against each other during the Northern Luzon Cluster Science and Technology (NLC-S&T) Fair from Feb. 15-19 at the Benguet State University (BSU), La Trinidad with the theme, “Responding to global challenges through Science and Technology.” 

The robotics competition is one of the events for this year’s NLC S&T fair organized and facilitated by the Department of Science and Techno-logy in partnership with BSU. It aims to promote engineering ingenuity among students and to encourage them to build environmental-friendly and functional robots. It will be held on the first two days of the week-long fair. 

Students from the various universities and colleges all over Northern Luzon will be competing in two categories: Open Category with three sub-categories (logic gates, microcontrollers, and programmable logic controller); and Line Following Category with two sub-categories (logic gates and microcontrollers). 

The open category will feature robots assembled and constructed by a team of students that is functional and environment-friendly. Robots must be pre-assembled and software program must have been made before the start of the event. During judging, teams must have to finally assemble and test their robots and demonstrate its uniqueness and capabilities to the jury.

Entries must not have joined previous competitions. Teams must submit write-ups (abstracts of entries) to the MIS committee in electronic form through a temporary yahoogroup which shall be created on or before Feb. 5.

Meanwhile, for the Line Following Category, mobile robots or mobots will race against each other in pairs through two identical line tracks setup for the event in successive elimination rounds. There will be no limits to the physical dimension of the mobots as long as it can negotiate and not damage the tracks. Hardware will be open-branded and open specifications, especially for microcontrollers, gates, sensors, chassis, etc. Circuitry, on the other hand, should strictly be started from scratch, while chassis may be started from scratch or may be modified from an existing one. 

The mobots must be autonomous in operation with the only allowed interaction with any outside intelligence is for starting and stopping. This means that mobots must in no way be remotely controlled or programmed with course information in the middle of the race. Battery replacements will be allowed after each race of every match. The mobot that wins the most number of races will be declared the winner. 

Contestants for the mobots may view the general track configuration in the internet at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6nURrmo35s. 

Robots will be disqualified if the judges deem it to be dangerous to contestants, spectators, other robots, or the place of event. Cash prizes along with certificates await the winners. 

Presently, there are 45 initial entries received from SLU, UB, and UC while outside of Baguio City, and the Collegio de Dagupan signified their participation. The MIS committee is still accepting additional entries for both categories. The NLC-S&T fair secretariat could be reached at (074) 422-0979 or (074) 422-2214. 

Other activities of the S&T fair include Technology Fora, S&T Trivia, S&T Exhibits, and Techno Bazaar. The DOST Northern Luzon Cluster is composed of Regions 1, 2, and CAR.