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34th WARMAN

DESIGN & BUILD COMPETITION 2021

Project Neutralise

REPORT FROM THE WARMAN FINAL – 31 October 2021 A/Prof Warren Smith – International Final Supervisor

On behalf of NCED and the International Competition Coordinators, A/Prof Don Clucas (University of Canterbury), Prof Craig Wheeler (University of Newcastle) and Dr. Scott Wordley (Monash University)

I would especially like to acknowledge firstly the work of Tim Riley (Chair of NCED) for his efforts to negotiate and stage a Final. Given the circumstances we have all lived under during the pandemic, conducting any event was an achievement and appreciated. Covid-19 had caused the cancellation of the 33rd Final in 2020 and had certainly also significantly impacted student and university participation in the project in 2021. However, what was achieved and presented upheld the standard provided further evidence of the value of the project in engineering education.

This being the 34th year of the Warman Design and Build Competition, a Final for Project Neutralise was conducted on 31 October. While not framed as the traditional face-to-face event in Sydney we have become accustomed to over the years, with a visit to Weir Minerals and three days of activity, the NCED and Campus Organisers wish to thank Griffith University and Prof Dzung Dao for hosting this event and coordinating the virtual attendance of those in other locations via Teams.

Participants came from NZ, WA, SA, NSW, QLD and the ACT. While we did not come together in person, the achievements from ten universities and 11 campuses were showcased. All teams are to be congratulated as finalists and they will be issued certificates and have the right to add the episode to their CV’s.

What has been decided is to record the outcome of the Final in the context of two divisions of competition, those that competed “live”, and those that participated through submitting pre-recorded video, under actual or simulated competition conditions. For both divisions, the rules as written were applied, with mass and volume constraints checked and the Competition Score being calculated as per Rule 42:

COMPETITIONscore = Max RUNscore + Min RUNscore/2

Five teams competed in the LIVE Division on the day, 3 teams from Griffith University at Griffith University representing both the Nathan (1 team) and Gold Coast (2 teams) campuses, one from the lounge room of a staff member from the University of Newcastle (who with Covid restrictions looming quickly relocated the track to his house to facilitate the UoN Team’s participation) and the other from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Seven teams submitted video recordings and were recognised in the VIDEO Division. At the start of Semester 2, the University of Canterbury conducted a run-off between their top three teams as identified in Semester 1, to decide who would represent at the Final and the performances of the best team from that event were submitted without further refinement taking place. The three South Australian universities had come together in early October to compete for State bragging rights. Two teams from each of Flinders University, Uni SA and Adelaide University participated and the best attempts made on that day in competition were submitted as entries for their respective institutions to the Final. The UNSW Canberra entry was based on their local class competition video recordings from early June. While not winning the local competition, the team offered the representation

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opportunity had the greatest potential to develop a competitive system. Unfortunately for them, due to lockdown constraints imposed in August, their potential remained unrealised. The recordings tendered from ECU and RMIT were made in a laboratory environment under simulated competition conditions.

On day of the “Final”, 5 teams were witnessed to achieve perfect accuracy with 10 pellet delivery and recovery to the end zone in times of 4 (x2), 6.5, 9.5 and 28 seconds. One of these runs was achieved live. Bravo to all! The variety of approaches to the method for delivering pellets to the silos was impressive and satisfying to see.

From the Rules:

OBJECTIVE The objective is to design, build and demonstrate a proof of concept scaled prototype pellet deployment system in a laboratory environment. Points will be earned when your autonomous system starts entirely within the Start/End zone and delivers the pellets into each of four vertical tubes, Figure 1. The required number of pellets to be deposited in each tube is shown in Figure 1. Further points will be scored when the entire system returns to being fully to the Start/End zone side of the vivid black line, Figure 1, in less than 120 seconds, faster systems will be preferred. Preferably all ten pellets will be correctly deposited but fewer will earn points.

Figure 1. Schematic view of the Competition Track showing silo tube location and the number of pellets targetted

to be in each tube at the completion of the run. Tubes (silos) are shown transparent for clarity.

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So to the Podiums:

In the “LIVE” Division:

1st University of Newcastle

2nd Griffith University Team 2 (Nathan Campus)

3rd Griffith University Team 1 (Gold Coast Campus)

In the “VIDEO” Division:

1st University of Canterbury (and best overall)

2nd Flinders University

3rd Edith Cowan University

Links to View Team Achievements:

U of Newcastle https://youtu.be/xsb0TBrPV_w

Griffith U T 2 Griffith Team 2, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=wAF95Dr1YjY

Griffith U T 1 Griffith Teams 1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=wAF95Dr1YjY

Griffith U T3

UTS

U of Canterbury https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YfaKf_DXM0

Flinders U Run 1: https://youtu.be/leUP-mArcVQ, Run 2 : https://youtu.be/5hfV7Uo2Ato

ECU https://youtu.be/nICjmdXXN10

RMIT https://youtu.be/vzh7ylyPulo

UniSA https://youtu.be/6UjfLrQqhSM

U of Adelaide https://youtu.be/O_rdF3l9wBY

UNSW Canberra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDIFyYuoDB4

SA Final time lapse of the days event: https://youtu.be/RuVqHAx64Gw

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Team and Device Photos

University of Newcastle (Josh Bywater, Xara Eyers, Philip Hosken)

Griffith 2 – Gold Coast (Nathan) (Eastwood Groth, Jarred Crook, Noor Bukhari)

Griffith 1 – (Gold Coast) (Jessica Hyland, Cooper Woolley, Connor Gibson, Cooper Hopson with Tim Riley and Dzung Dao)

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(no picture available)

Griffith 3 (Gold Coast) (Samuel Warren, Jonathan McLean, Shannon McNaught)

(no picture available)

UTS (Yasmene Placer, Nicholas McAuley, Ishan Melwani, Jaden Kostogiannis, Jared Mayo)

University of Canterbury (Simon Charman (C), Ioane Fiso, Ronan Fuller, Bruno McCall)

Flinders University (Representative Team - Jamie Naismith, Jamie Armfield, Adam Hemer)

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ECU (Scott Cashman, John Paolo, Lochlan Dunne, Justin King)

RMIT (Murray Robinson, Jordi Karstens, Guan-Liang Yeh (Howard Yeh), Fergus Fennessy, Max McConville)

UniSA (Blair Whittaker, Keigan Williams, Jack White, Aaron Hayward, Andrew Coe (C))

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University of Adelaide (Mahmad Ouban, Sakshi, Harvey Michels)

UNSW Canberra (Rory Davitt, Jane Hickie, Samuel McPhail, Georgia Warren)

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Group Photos from SA Final of all 6 Teams

Six teams participated in the SA Final, 2 from each university. When being organizing the national competition was not on the horizon. Within covid capacity limits, 6 teams and judges and support

staff could be accommodated.