Young robotics engineers from Costa Rica have done their country proud at the 11^th World Robot Olympiad (WRO) currently underway in Sochi, Russia. According to an official press release from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications, engineers representing our country in the College Category advanced to the final stage and received a special award for their robotic creation.

Laura Fonseca, William Fallas and Andrey Solano make up the senior robotics team from Costa Rica. They faced strong competition from Asian teams that dominated the WRO. To this end, teams from Taiwan earned eight awards. Still, the team from Costa Rica managed to place sixth among 45 participating nations, and the young engineers were given a special award.

The 2014 WRO was organized with space exploration at the backdrop of the tournament. The project presented by the team from Costa Rica was a robotic explorer that earned accolades as the speediest and easiest to control. Ministry of Science Gisella Kopper commented on this achievement:

Today we are more than proud of the achievements of the robotics team from Costa Rica. We call attention to the effort made by all our engineers and the challenge they assumed as they represented our country in Russia. It is thanks to our excellent technical education and the drive of our teachers and students that the Ministry and everyone in Costa Rica feels proud of the scientific and technological know-how of our youth. We will continue to support them because we know they will continue to make our country proud.

The field of robotics in Costa Rica has been enjoying steady development in recent years. Apropos of the space exploration them of this year’s WRO, researchers from the University of Costa Rica are working on robotic system to improve the autonomous navigation systems of robots such as the Mars rovers launched by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The project is being coordinated by Professor Geovanni Martinez, a brilliant engineer who is also the 2002 recipìent of the coveted Clodomiro Picado Award for Excellence in Science. What Professor Martinez hopes to achieve with the Husky A200 robot is to validate the monocular visual odometer algorithm for planetary exploration.