RoboFesta-UK/Blue Peter Competition

In late November 2001, RoboFesta-UK (part of the European RoboFesta movement) took 4 British children to Japan as part of a delegation of European children. The famous BBC television children’s programme, Blue Peter, worked with us on this project and helped us to find the children delegates.

Blue Peter is one of the most famous children’s programmes in Britain. It’s target audience is children between the ages of six and fourteen, although both younger and older children enjoy it too. It’s weekly audience is about three million children, of the total of nine million in the age group.

Blue Peter has a ‘magazine’ format in which a mixture of short ‘articles’ is presented live from a studio in London. Blue Peter has a strong tradition of design and making things. Also it often has articles in which its presenters go to interesting places around the world. This is in perfect harmony with our desire to get children to design robots, and to select four children to go to Japan.

The design would have ideally included:

• a picture (which doesn't have to be too technical - what's important are the ideas);
• a few words that explain exactly what your robot will do, and how it will do it. For example,
  • how will it move? (will it have wheels, or legs, or will it even fly?)
  • how will it know where it is? (can it see, or touch, or smell, or hear?)
  • how will it decide what to do? (will you tell it, or will it think for itself?)
• ...and a few more words saying how the robot could be made even better. For example, first say what's best about your robot, and then what you might do to improve it.

In all, we received over 32, 000 entries. A report on some of the entries received in the competition is available online. There is also a Powerpoint presentation available reviewing the competition, the robot design masterclass that was held for the competition winners at the Science Museum, and the International Friendship Games that were attended by the winners in Japan.