What a wonderful logo and name these young Dutch students have come up with for their robotics team. If you are familiar with the famous Dutch artist M. C. Escher, the subtlety of their logo won’t be missed.

Victron Energy are delighted to announce they are to be one of the main sponsors of the Impossible Robotics team, where we hope the seemingly impossible will become possible, just as their logo intimates.

Why is Victron doing this? It’s quite straightforward really and I can do no better than to quote Matthijs Vader, MD of Victron Energy:

“This has little, if anything at all, to do with sponsorship money or profile for the company. For me this is about getting young people involved with electronics and related software. These young people are the engineers of tomorrow and the future for companies like Victron. We are delighted to support them.”

 Visiting Victron

Here is a photo of Henk van der Wal (the team coach) and a young team member visiting Victron premises. Taken just the other day , it looks to me like a young person has just been let loose in candy store full of electronic sweets. I think that goes for the team coach too!

Impossible Robotics team members

Shown below are some of the team members, with their initial sketches and plans in the background as they plan for their first robot games challenge of 2015, called REcYcLE rush. This particular game that the team have registered for is being held in Richmond, Virginia , USA from  Mar 18th – Mar 21st, 2015.

It is one of many events across the globe. All the FIRST Robotics Competition Events (which currently total 109) are listed here: http://www.thebluealliance.com/events

REcYcLE rush

To explain what this is, the best way is to see the ‘2015 FRC Game Reveal video‘, when the game REcYcLE rush was first revealed in early January, to participating teams around the world.

In principal this involves moving objects and containers about the game area, stacking them and filling them with items. I hope that is not an over simplification, as to my mind as an aging engineer, there is an incredible amount of planning, building and logistics that goes into this challenge. Not to mention looming deadlines.

My hat goes off then to these young people, as even for us adults it would be a challenge indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTyCIYZQ_1s

Founder & Coach

Henk van der Wal,  is the founder and coach of the Impossible Robotics team. I spoke to him recently to learn more about the team background. Here is what he had to say:

“I’m very proud and indeed grateful for the fact that over the last three years, the core of our robotics team has grown from a middle school FIRST Lego League (FLL) team, via FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), to an official FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team. During this time we have also had some notable successes.

• First Place Award for Inspiration at the FLL Invitational World championship in Florida
• 17th place in a field of 48 FTC teams in the FTC Dutch Open, as a Rookie team
• Engineering Inspiration Award with FRC Team Rembrandts, at the North Carolina Regional as guest team members
• Imagery Award with FRC Team Rembrandts at the World Championship in St. Louis as guest team members

Whilst we are naturally thrilled with our achievements to date we have also gained a vast amount of experience and skills, not to mention the fun we’ve had and the friendships we’ve made.

Now we are ready to add to all this, with our very own FRC team: Impossible Robotics.

I’m most grateful to Victron Energy who has supported us through our development years and in 2015 continues to do so. Without this support none of this would have been possible.

Together with our sponsors we look forward to the future, the robotics challenges to come and the hands-on technical education this will bring. I say that with confidence and thanks to all.”

Stay in touch

We’ll be reporting regularly, as the team progresses, here on the Victron blog. Please also show your support in the DISQUS comments section below and/or like and follow the team:

Website – Impossible Robotics

Twitter – Team5412

Facebook – impossible.robotics

Conclusion

What can we say other than Victron Energy and all their staff wish the Impossible Robotics team every success this year and beyond.

Make the impossible possible and enjoy every minute. You are the engineers of the future.

John Rushworth on behalf of Victron Energy.