Day 6 - Light and Shadow

Before the first competition, we have to conquer the breakfast buffet. Since many teams stay at the neighboring hotel where we have breakfast, there is a queue at the buffet. But it's really good. Fried bacon, fried eggs, cornflakes but also Japanese breakfast, meaning soup, rice, and fried salmon.

The boys are cut off from us during the competition. There's not even Wi-Fi so that the mentors can't help their proteges. Even an observer comes with us to the group photos to make sure we don't program the robot.

The referees come from all nations. My favorite is a referee in a pink frilly dress.

The Zeltweg MAZE team has a good start and is in 9th place after the first round.

Unfortunately, they can't maintain this quality in the next rounds as they struggle with the higher floor thresholds and fall behind. The Trieben line team messes up the first run, but then slowly gets going. However, it's not enough for a spot in the top 20 on the first day. Unfortunately, the long night shift from the day before didn't pay off.

In addition to the juniors, there are also the major competitions. Here you can see where it's all going. The devices there have to overcome stairs but also perform precise tasks such as shutting off a valve.

There is also an intermediate level as a student competition, where larger obstacles have to be overcome.

The soccer players are still fascinating, although apparently not much has developed since the Robocup 2007 in Shuzhou.

In the evening, the boys are painting. Some of them are almost falling asleep while standing. They want to take a short break and then continue working - we'll see.

Colleague Köberl and I went up to the 42nd floor of a hotel at the train station and enjoyed the view. The observation deck is combined with an open-air restaurant - an exciting concept.

We'll see if the boys' nocturnal efforts have an effect.