HKU Robocon 2019

Host department: Department of Mechanical Engineering

Supervisor: Dr. Ka Wai Kwok (ME) and Prof. Kenneth Wong (EEE)

About M2 Robotics

We are a robotic team formed in 2004 to participate in the ABU robocon competition. Since its establishment, and had won Champion 4 times, 1st runner up 5 times and 2nd runner up 3 times in local competition, and 1st runner up once in international competition in the past 16 years. We are looking forward to win more awards for HKU in upcoming competition. Our members mainly come from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Computer Science. We also welcome students not from Engineering Faculty to join us as long as you are passionate and willing to work hard ain robotics.

About the game in 2020

Recruitment

At the start of this school year, we will host our recruitment talk on 18th September, from 1845-2030 on Composite Building Room LG1-09 (opposite to Engineering Society room). In the recruitment talk, we will talk more about our team’s organization, expectations on our new members and the competition topic of next year. If you are interested in joining this team, you could apply by filling in the following application form.

The deadline for applications is 22nd September

Explore your limits

If you want to explore your limit here, then do not hesitate to apply. You will gain valuable experience in practical work and knowledge in the related fields, such as operating machines, working with the circuit board and developing codes.
Do not worry even If you have little prior knowledge about the technical skills. We highly value the persistence and hard work contributed by the members.

Tip: Dont be afraid of the questions

Don’t worry when reading the technical questions in this form! We understand that you may have not even heard of many of the technical terms in the questions, but so were we (current team members) when we first joined the team.

These technical questions are placed here merely to give you a “sense” of what problems we will face during our preparation of the contest. It is totally normal if you don’t know how to answer them right now. You are here to learn!

Contact us

Contact us via email (m2.robocon@gmail.com) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/m2.robotics) for any inquires. Further training activities would be announced in our Whatsapp group. Both successful and unsuccessful application will be notified via email on or before 22nd September, 2019.

Training

After selection according to the answer in the google form, you will officially join our team as a trainee. We will separate trainees into the 3 departments according to their preference.

The training will last from 3rd week to September to 3rd week of November.

The training contains materials that are mostly expected to be self-learned by the trainees and complete the tutorial tasks.

Trainees in the Programming team – Focus on control theories and Robot Operating System (ROS).
Trainees in the Electronic team – Focus on electronic design, circuit theories and master the use of Altium Designer 18.
Trainees in the Mechanical team – Focus on mechanical design and how to use Solidworks.

Those who could endure our intensive training scheme and passed the final test will be admitted into our team as an official member.

Expectations and Commitments

We have high expectations between ourselves as we always strive to be the best not only amongst our peers in HKU but amongst other engineering students in Hong Kong. On normal school days, our team members commit most of their free time working inside M2 Robocon Studio and learn more knowledge and skills related to M2. Our members are also diligent and actively seeks out problems and imperfections and work to remove them. During both winter and summer breaks, most of our core members will stay in the studio and work a full day as winter break allows us to work without getting interrupted by other school works. Like how 1st Viscount Nelson once said: “England expects that every man will do his duty.” M2 Robocon Studio expects every member to give their best and fight for HKU in ABU Robocon Competition.

Team leaders

Hello. I am Alex, a team member of M2. I have joined in since last year and have participated in designing some parts of the contest robot for Robocon 2019, as well as fine-tuning the performance of the said robot. I am a mechanical engineering student and have a great interest in robotics and control, and hence wish to pursue a future in those fields. Joining this team surely does help a lot, for example, I learned to use CAD software (Solidworks), manufacturing processes like using the vertical milling machines to make parts for our robots (Aluminium tubes, even sometimes parts). Since I am also trying to pursue a future career in Robotics and Control, I can also have a chance to apply the knowledge learned in the control courses offered in this university to optimizing the performance of the robots. As of now, since the theme for Robocon 2020 is issued, I am working on the preliminary designs in hopes to speed up our R&D phase.

I am Peter, a year 4 student studying Computer Engineering. I have stayed in M2 Robocon studio for 3 years witnessing victories and failures of us. Meanwhile, I have learned and applied knowledge in MCU programming and PCB designing on the robots we made, which are part of the main components in forming a robot. These experiences are unique and cannot be acquired barely from the courses we study. I am grateful that I have engaged in the team which brings me a fruitful campus life. In Robocon 2020, I will focus more on programming and I will strive hard to contribute more on our robots.

Here is Heidi. It is my third year in the university and M2 Robocon Studio. I study computer science and work as a programmer. In M2, people flourish with their passion and potential. Students from various backgrounds join and meet here, working and fighting for one common goal. The contest is a rare chance that an engineering student could found to consolidate their knowledge and try out the latest technology. As a programmer, I do the automation, computer vision and strive to figure out the best strategy in the program flow. There are still a lot to learn and unknowns to solve, but it is the time we spent together here allows us to overcome all of it. The topic for 2020 Robocon is out, I am looking forward to see how our design is going to evolve in this year.

Hi, I am Henry, a final Computer Engineering student and the team leader of M2 Robocon studio this year. I have joined the team since year 1 and have participated in the competition for 4 years. In this team, I have got my hands on mechanical design, programming and electronic design, this allows me to learn knowledge outside of my expertise. In Robocon 2020, I will work as an electronic engineer and team leader for the programming and electronic department. I hope that we could work harmoniously in this year and earn our ticket to Fiji!

Here is Thomas, a final year Mechanical Engineering student. This is my fourth year in M2 Robocon Studio (M2). M2 is a great platform to put my design into practice, including both the CAD and CAM part. During the past three year journey in M2, failures of prototypes of robots are always with me, but each time these nurture me to get prepared to be an engineer. In Robocon 2020, I will lead the Mechanical department and hope that we could get the champion in Hong Kong. Fiji is waiting for us.

Gallery (Robocon 2019)