Student Robotics Competition, Southampton University - April 2026

On the last weekend of the Easter holidays, 10 Sixth Form students travelled to Southampton University to compete in the annual Student Robotics competition. Here they faced off against 21 teams from schools around the UK and Germany. The challenge was to design and code an autonomous robot to collect point-scoring blocks marked as acids or bases, racing against other robots in fast-paced rounds lasting two minutes and 45 seconds.

Throughout the two-day competition, the St. Olave’s team worked relentlessly to code, test and refine their robot’s movements and strategies. The first day proved challenging, with some early stagnancy in matches one and two, but the team quickly bounced back after lunchtime. By adapting their code under pressure and learning from each round, they staged an impressive comeback and were climbing up the league table.

After a night of intense collaboration in the hotel, fixing and improving their robot, affectionately named Rob Giraffrey, the team returned even stronger on day two. They performed consistently well in the remaining league matches, securing 9th place overall by midday, a first in St. Olave’s Robotics history.

The team then progressed to the knockout stages, where they put up a fantastic fight and were narrowly eliminated in the quarter-finals by a single point.

The team’s performance was a testament to their hard work throughout the year and their teamwork under pressure. We look forward to building on this success in next year’s competition.