Our Singapore Adventure. Day by Day. Relive all the matches with us.
Day 1 - Friday
After arriving late in the evening the day before and discovering our hotel, we are expected at 9:30 am at the Singapore Expo for the competition opening.
The doors open, and over a thousand people from around the world flood into the exhibition center.
We squeeze onto benches and tables temporarily provided for us. Immediately the atmosphere is great: the various teams unpack their robots and start tinkering with them while others are already meeting each other.
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At 11 am, our stands are open, and we can set up. For our team, there is still a lot of work to do: we need to reassemble the robot, which had to be partly disassembled to fit into its transport box, and we have two servomotors that are not yet programmed.
Once that’s done, we have the opportunity to test our robot on one of the practice tables provided for the players. We then realize that, in the rush, we hadn’t noticed a low horizontal bar in the central area that prevents us from hanging at the end of the match. We then decide to try to modify our hanging system. The team gets to work! However, we still take advantage of the evening to explore Singapore a bit: we meet up with the team from Luxembourg and Malaysia at Marina Bay, where we witness a magical fountain show in the humidity of this part of Asia.
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Day 2 - Saturday
We are ready by the opening at 8:30 am because we know we have a lot to do. Our modification of the hanging seems to still be a problem, but we haven’t identified it yet. Additionally, our robot seems slow, so we decide to significantly reduce our gear ratio to speed it up. This requires a lot of work, so we get to it quickly. At 9 am, the teams are gathered in the stands for a presentation of some points of the rules by the referees and a Q&A session. Time is starting to work against us because at 2 pm, the team needs to be ready for the rehearsal of the opening ceremony.
The coaches finalize the process during this time, but unfortunately, the robot then proves to be uncontrollable: the wheels do not grip enough, and its movements are erratic. We initially think it’s an error in the code, but after checking it several times, we resign ourselves to going back by testing an intermediate gear ratio. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to do it because the official opening ceremony begins. The moment is magical, with 191 countries parading one by one. The five high school students proudly parade in their t-shirts displaying the French flag and the We Robot logo.
Everyone comes back enchanted: the atmosphere of celebration and the final spectacle. We return to the hotel delighted, exhausted, but also worried about our robot problems.
Day 3 - Sunday
Our first official match is at 2:50 pm. This gives us time to once again change our movement system. The trials are finally conclusive: the robot is controllable and moves faster than at the beginning. Phew! Once on the test table, we realize that the robot is operational: it can pick up the green balls (representing hydrogen atoms), store them in its basket, pour them into the designated tank, and then move to the central zone. Unfortunately, it still can’t hang. Never mind! This morning we have the opportunity to have a “real” test match on one of the tables, so we go for it. It’s the first time the team is allied with two other teams on the field, and it’s also the first time the actions must be completed within the allotted time: 2 minutes 30 seconds.
This first match is disastrous: Quentin is at the controls, he rushes into the central zone to retrieve the green balls, due to lack of training, he presses the wrong button, and our basket starts to rise, he can’t stop it. The raised basket prevents him from exiting the central zone. Another robot joins him and gets tangled in one of our stray servo cables! Both robots are stuck! But we learn from our mistakes: subsequently, we try to secure our cables, and the coding team ensures that certain actions (such as raising the basket) are not possible under any condition. It’s time for the first match. We team up with Belarus and Nepal. This time, Elina is at the controls, we pick up between 5 and 10 balls correctly and pour them… next to next to the tank.
A very disappointing result for our alliance: only 20 points tied with the opposing alliance. We still have one more match today. It’s already time to prepare for our next match at 3:46 PM. We will be allied with Norway and the Dominican Republic.
The match is again very disappointing; we only manage to put two hydrogen atoms in the tank, the Dominican Republic does nothing, and Norway only pushes the tank to its final location. Result: 17 points against 28 for the opposing team. We are a little disappointed with the result of this first day, but we understand why the balls were poorly poured and imagine a “tab” system to solve this problem. However, we still have many matches left to catch up, and tonight FIRST takes us into town, and we intend to enjoy it! The organization is as smooth as silk: we are taken to the Gardens by the bay and welcomed into a large reception hall where various street food stands are set up, and there are many high tables. We have dinner there. Then we go directly to the flower Dome, which is a greenhouse dedicated to flowers. Then we have entry to the Cloud Forest, which is another greenhouse of a height allowing it to house a large waterfall.
We also enjoy a temporary exhibition dedicated to the Avatar films in this environment. The young people are delighted! We end with a magnificent sound and light show on the famous monumental artificial trees of Singapore (Supertree Grove).
We end the evening by leaving the FIRST organization and joining the Luxembourg team at Marina Bay. We go up to the 57th floor of the luxurious Marina Bay Sands hotel to admire the view and then go for a drink outdoors at Marina Bay.
The evening is exhausting, we return a little late while the next day, our biggest day awaits us as we have six matches to play.
Day 4: Monday
At 10:11 AM we start directly with a match on field 5. This one has the particularity of being commented live by the event presenters. So, we can witness it not only on the field’s edge stream but also on the entire competition’s stream.
We are allied with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Pakistan. The match is still not incredible (only 19 points), but our team is doing really well, and we win our first victory. We can see the joy of the alliance teams congratulating each other.
Additionally, the fact that we won this match on the main field means that we are interviewed by the local TV: CNA. Tim represents the team !
At 11:42 AM, we have our next match. We team up with Turkmenistan and Syria. Turkmenistan is supposed to be a good team, but the match goes very wrong. Moreover, a technical problem prevents the players from accessing the timer during the match, and the referees only realize this very late. Finally, the match is canceled and postponed to the end of the day. We have time to grab lunch; our next match is at 2:35 PM. This time we are allied with Cuba and Madagascar. It’s nice for the young people to be able to exchange a little in French to develop the strategy.
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And besides, this time, we have a solid strategy: Elina picks up the green balls while Madagascar pushes the tank near the accumulator, then Elina pours the 10 balls retrieved into the tank and places it under the accumulator. She still has time to position herself in the central zone.
It’s our highest score: 47 points! And we have, once again, done almost all the work! However, the opposing team is much better with 81 points. We don’t really have time to savor our progress because the matches continue, and the next one is in less than an hour, at 3:24 PM. This time we are allied with Saint-Kitts-et-Nevis (who had heard of them ?) and the Cayman Islands. To be honest, victory doesn’t seem likely. But this assumption isn’t so obvious; another team than ours manages to put hydrogen atoms in the tank (for the first time!), and we win the match with a score of 33.
The next match, at 4:27 PM, assigns us South Africa and Bosnia Herzegovina. The mentor of the latter is fully into the competition. He arrives with a table plan and a marker and takes care of building the strategy himself (which should be the role of the young people). He seems very organized, almost military-like. The chosen strategy is the same as the two previous ones, which, concerning our team and the capabilities of our robot, has so far proved to be suitable.
The match goes more or less as planned, and we win it with our best score of the competition: 53 points! We still have two matches to go: one at 5:16 PM and one 10 minutes later, which is the catch-up match with Turkmenistan. For now, we are allied with Tajikistan and Dominique.
This time, we are really the underdog team; everything goes wrong. Elina seems to have a little trouble controlling the robot; she seems to lose her composure a bit and, in panic, spills all the balls next to the tank! She doesn’t even manage to push it under the accumulator. It’s a disaster. The young people come out disheartened. But we don’t have time to dwell on our misfortune because we move on to the catch-up match.
Aurélien takes over, and this time the strategy works. All teams play their roles despite a small final hiccup. We win this match 69 to 25, which allows us to rise to 127th place from … last in the morning. This day of competition ends wonderfully. In the evening, we take the metro to visit Singapore’s Indian quarter.
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Day 5: Tuesday
Only two matches left for us to qualify for the finals. Our chances are slim, but given the day we had yesterday, we are optimistic. First match at 10:11 a.m. against Kenya and Sao Tomé-et-Principe.
It’s the beginning of a downward spiral ! Aurélien is at the controls, and nothing is going as it should. It feels like he’s lost his ability to pilot. And then comes the collision with Japan. They get tangled in one of our stray cables, and we can’t break free. Instead of heading together to the central zone for the final (which earns points for all teams), Japan insists on going from the opposite side, knocking over our robot and immobilizing us, blocking the passage of our reservoir to the accumulator in the process. A disaster! We lose the match 20 to 46. Qualifications are definitely out of reach, even with a stroke of luck in the next alliance. Our last match is at 12:10 p.m. against Slovakia and Niger. Luck hasn’t been on our side anyway. We’re back on the main field, so the match is visible on both the general stream and the field-side stream.
Quentin takes over, but it’s not much better. He arrives late to the central zone and ends up placing all the green balls beside it. Slovakia and the shooters (including Tim) did a great job with the blue balls (oxygen atoms), but Quentin couldn’t position the reservoir correctly under the accumulator. We end in a resounding failure: 41 to 135, with an additional penalty because an oxygen atom was found in our reservoir, which is prohibited ! Our final ranking is disappointing : 161st out of 191, but we overcome our defeat and enjoy watching the finals. We finally have the opportunity to observe other robots in real situations. Some are really impressive (we recommend those from Kazakhstan and Venezuela). After the award ceremonies, we make the most of our last evening by visiting the Chinatown district of Singapore.
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Day 6 - Wednesday
We leave the hotel at 10:30 AM and begin our journey back. We land at Charles de Gaulle around 10:30 PM after an 18-hour trip. We are greeted by the parents of the young participants with great enthusiasm, which warms our hearts.
