Robotics

2026 RoboCup Junior WA State Championship

On Saturday 22 August, eight Year 8 and Year 9 students represented St Norbert College at the 2026 RoboCup Junior WA State Championship, held at Murdoch University’s Boola Katitjin. More than 800 students from 22 schools competed across a range of robotics challenges, making it one of Western Australia’s largest school robotics events.

This was St Norbert College’s first time competing at RoboCup Junior. Four teams have participated in Robotics Club this year, with R2D2 and Spike Team 6 selected to represent the College at the State Championship. Each competition team consisted of four students.

R2D2: Vernitus O, Knish V, Christopher S, Juan S

Spike Team 6: Luke S, Anaaddeep J, Jai G, Gaurika A

Both teams entered the Mighty Maisy Maze division using autonomous robots they designed and programmed with LEGO Education SPIKE Prime. In this rescue-themed challenge, robots must independently navigate a maze, avoid hazardous black tiles, locate coloured markers representing trapped or injured victims, and identify the reflective exit tile. Once a round begins, the robot must complete the challenge without remote control or assistance from its team.

The students competed across four preliminary rounds, testing and refining their robots between each attempt. They analysed their results, adjusted their code and even rebuilt parts of their robots as they responded to the challenges they encountered.

“Our team improved throughout the day,” Jai reflected. “By the end of the day, our productivity was much higher, and the number of points we collected was also a lot higher.”

Both teams improved their scores as the day progressed and ultimately finished 19th and 21st out of 27 teams in the preliminary standings, a very respectable result in SNC’s first RoboCup Junior competition.

The students’ reflections showed that the experience was about much more than the final rankings. Anaad described the learning and development throughout the day as “quite special”, adding that the team learnt that “sometimes risks are worth taking”.

Lavishka highlighted the importance of persistence: “It teaches you that everything doesn’t have to be perfect the first time. You need to keep trying.”

The achievement is especially significant because 2026 is the inaugural year of the SNC Robotics Club. Since Term 2, students have met for one hour after school each week to build, program and test their robots. Over the past term and a half, it has been wonderful to see the students grow in confidence, technical ability and resilience. They have also bonded as a group, supporting one another, sharing ideas and working collaboratively through setbacks and successes.

The students were accompanied on the day by Mr Sebastian Graf and Mrs Samantha Eloff. Special thanks go to Mrs Eloff for generously giving up her Saturday to support the teams. We also thank Ms Linda Gillham, Mr Matthew Cheney and Mrs Sam Mark, who gave their time to assist with Robotics Club throughout the year and help the students prepare for the competition.

Special thanks must also go to the students’ parents and families. Their support, including transporting students to the competition and collecting them after the club’s 4.30 pm finish each week, made SNC’s participation possible.

Following an encouraging first appearance, SNC plans to return to RoboCup Junior next year. We look forward to continuing to grow Robotics Club and providing even more students with opportunities to design, build, program and compete.

Mr S Graf

Teacher