Innovatiecluster Drachten congratulates Spider Scarjo as the winner of the NHL Spider Day 2016. Scarjo, named after the reference to Scarlett Johansson, wowed the audience with her speed and suppleness in the dance moves and stole the show.
The third edition of Spider Day took place on Wednesday, June 22 on the NHL. In multidisciplinary teams, consisting of second-year students from the Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering degree programmes, the students spent months working on their own unique robot spider. The result was an exciting and spectacular match.
Storytelling
,”Storytelling is an important element of Spider Day," says judge Nants Schilstra. The robot spiders each tell their own story with which they compete for the fastest time and the best dance moves. The trick here is to dance synchronously with the music. In addition, the spiders must complete an autonomous course in which they are shot at with ping pong balls.
Pride
According to Sibbele Oosterhaven, professor of Computer Science and host of the event, the students may ”grutsk wêze” at their robot spiders. ,,And mainly on the collaboration they have shown during the project. The strength of the story is connecting students with all kinds of different backgrounds,” the presenter said.
Artificial intelligence
,”With Spider Day, students can functionally apply their knowledge in a robotic spider, making powerful use of artificial intelligence," Oosterhaven explained. Scarjo demonstrated this in part by using brain waves. Based on a brain monitor, the students controlled the winning robot spider.
See how spider Scarjo became a winner.