The inaugural RoboCup Ireland competition challenged students to build machines that could dance, play soccer and even rescue people. Gráinne Faller reports on the winning team, which went on to the world finals - and on how an activity that was designed to be fun also has numerous serious applications

When the Twin Towers collapsed, after the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington DC, the difficulties facing search-and-rescue teams were enormous. The heat, the dust and the sheer amount of rubble and other debris meant that conditions were hugely challenging. Because of this, it was decided to draft in a team of rescuers who could go right inside the ruins, deeper than anyone else could. What's more, when rescuers were worried about the risk of fire or of debris falling on them, they sent in this team instead.

So who were these rescuers who boldly went where others couldn't? It may sound like something from Star Trek, but this band of heroes was entirely robotic. Research had been going on for some time into rescue robots that would be able to locate victims, search for the easiest places to excavate, conduct structural inspections and detect any hazardous materials that might put their human counterparts in danger.

It was the first time they were used in an urban rescue, and although no survivors were recovered, the robots were able to explore the interior of the rubble in a way that no human or animal could hope to do safely.

Before the September 11th disaster, the best a rescue worker could hope for was to see two metres below the surface, using a camera on a pole. With their robot helpers, rescuers could regularly explore depths of up to 20 metres. It was a huge step in search-and-rescue capability. Since then, research into rescue robotics has become a much more prominent field, and the technologies are improving year by year.

It was an area that fascinated a group of transition-year students at St Aidan's CBS in Whitehall, Dublin 9, when they heard about it last year. A transition-year programme called RoboCup Ireland had just been launched in conjunction with the National College of Ireland, and its organisers were recruiting participants. RoboCup is an international competition, involving 35 countries and regions, created to promote research in robotics and artificial intelligence.

Essentially, it promotes learning through fun. One of the aims of the senior branch of RoboCup is to create a team of robots that will be able to win a game of soccer against the World Cup champions in 2050. Junior RoboCup, the division that includes transition-year students, has three competition sections. The first is dance, in which robots have to complete a dance routine. The second, as in the senior branch, is soccer, during which robots compete against each other using an infrared ball, and the third is rescue, where robots must identify victims and negotiate debris and obstacles on a course.

Many St Aidan's students put their names forwards. The National College of Ireland offered to provide a free robot kit to each participating school. Schools could then buy more kits if they wished to enter extra teams. St Aidan's decided to stick with just one, and four names were pulled out of a hat to make up the team. Eoin McCormac, Andrew Jordan, Aaron Kennedy and Kevin Reilly were the lucky ones. What attracted them to the competition? "The free trip to Bremen!" says Kevin, referring to the prize for the winners of each category. "It was something completely new and interesting," says Eoin.

After they had been selected, the students went to the National College of Ireland for a crash course in robotics. Each team was given a kit containing all the sensors they would need for their chosen task. Once the robots were built, the teams would have to programme their machines using laptop computers.

The basic aim for the rescue teams was to get their robots to follow a black line on a set course. If the black line broke, the robots would have to know what to do. Victims were coloured green and silver, so the robots would have to distinguish them from any obstacles they came across. The robot that completed the course most successfully would win.

"We were the last school to join up," says Kevin. "We had about five weeks in all to do everything before the competition." Andrew says: "About 70 per cent of the work was problem-solving. There was a lot of trial and error, and if something went wrong we'd have to figure out how to solve it." Kevin adds: "We got a lot of class time to work on it. We didn't get any help, though. The teachers hadn't a clue!"

The team encountered many problems. "We were stuck for about a week on one thing," says Andrew. "We got the robot to follow the black line, but once it reached a break it would just drive around erratically and crash into a wall." They decided early on to focus on the important issues. "We were called the Space Vikings," says Aaron, laughing. "We did try to decorate the robot with that in mind. At one stage we had a dragon's head stuck to it, but it all just got in the way. The robot would be going up ramps, and it would flip backwards. We just decided to get rid of everything after that."

May was approaching, and the national competition loomed. Once the boys put their robot on the course and switched it on, the robot was on its own and had to react correctly to any problems that the course threw up. Therefore, they had to anticipate all of the problems that might arise. They even had to programme the robot differently, according to the surfaces that it might have to drive on.

"We were all really nervous," says Aaron. "The robot had a light sensor, and we had to programme it to recognise the different colours. We hadn't really got everything sorted out."

The first RoboCup Ireland contest was held at the National College of Ireland in May, with 115 transition-year students taking part in the national championships.

When Andrew, Eoin, Kevin and Aaron got to the competition, however, they discovered a glitch. "It couldn't recognise green victims for some reason," says Andrew. "The light in the room had changed, so we had to change the light values on the robot," says Eoin. "But then the robot couldn't turn left," adds Aaron. "When we had fixed the light values we had messed everything else up, but by that stage we just had to leave it."

The course suited the robot, however, and, luckily, even without the ability to turn left, any time it went off course it managed to rectify itself. The robot completed the course successfully, and, against all the odds, the St Aidan's students had won. It was, they agree, brilliant. The Irish win had qualified them for a place in the RoboCup 2006 World Championships, in Bremen. Winners in the other categories were from Belvedere College, Dublin, and Our Lady's College in Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth. All three teams set off for Germany in June.

"That was incredible," says Eoin. "It was in this huge conference centre." "The senior rescue robots had to go up stairs and rescue people rather than arms and legs that were lying around the place," says Aaron.

The St Aidan's students were paired with teams from China and Germany for their challenges in the junior league. "It was a really friendly atmosphere," says Kevin. "The Chinese teams were helping us to fix our robot, because we were having some problems with it."

The boys were slightly disappointed with their performance but were shocked to win a prize for an explanatory poster that accompanied their project. "We didn't expect it at all. We were in a bowling alley when that was announced," says Kevin. "The Belvedere team had to collect it for us!" "I'd definitely recommend it," says Andrew. "It's good craic, but it's important as well." "Ireland doesn't have robotics on the curriculum," says Aaron, "but it's huge in places like China." "You don't have to be really good at maths and science," says Andrew. "Maths doesn't really come into it. It's all about anticipating problems and figuring out ways around them."

For more about RoboCup Ireland, see www.ncirl.ie and follow the RoboCup tab. Alternatively, contact Sinéad Price, Eoin Geraghty or Ann Fogarty at the National College of Ireland (01-4498500). RoboCup launches again in November