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ITE’s AutoGoalkeeper Project ‘Scores’ with Judges at Singapore Robotics Games

From Inertia to Action

Learning Life Lessons from Team Singapore

ITE’s AutoGoalkeeper Project ‘Scores’
with Judges at Singapore Robotics Games

by Liang Hwee Ming

LEE Ni Sheng, and six of his friends from the Mechanical Engineering course, spent four months kicking a football into a goal post – over and over again.

These ITE West (Dover Campus) students were in the midst of fabricating their project, the Auto Goalkeeper. This nifty contraption comprises a goal post and a motion-controlled goalkeeper – the size of a small child – which is able to move fast enough to block flying balls at the post.

Explained Ni Sheng, a football fan: “This project is especially useful for soccer players to practise penalty kicks.”

This is how it works: a camera is mounted on an aluminum stand. At the base of the project are three retro-reflective sensors. When a ball is kicked, it will enter the line of sight of any of the sensors, which then triggers the camera digitally. The camera, in turn, sends the information to a personal computer, which then prompts an AC servo-motor driven belt-drive to move the goalkeeper in the direction which the ball is aimed at, to block the ball.

A First-Time Win
This project won First Prize in the Open Category of the Singapore Robotics Games this year. This is the first time that ITE has won in this category of the competition.Said Ni Sheng: “We were really surprised that we won but, of course, we were very pleased! It made the hours spent on fine-tuning the project, and making sure it worked perfectly worth all the effort.”

Added his teammate Kelvin Koh Lai Soon: “We were able to win because of strong teamwork; everyone puts in all his effort into this project, and we willingly spent hours working. Even when we faced minor obstacles, we tackled these problems and never felt discouraged.”

Besides the Open Category, ITE also won First Prize in the Micromouse (JC/ITE) Category. This is the second year in a row which ITE has won the competition for this category.

Key Success Factors
Commenting on ITE’s success in the robotics games, Dr Mark Lim, Director/School of Engineering, ITE West, said: “We have adopted the right strategy. We have identified our strengths accurately and used these strengths effectively to compete with worthy opponents.”

The Robotics Games has 14 categories and competitors come mainly from secondary schools and tertiary institutions.