The Robotics Club at Al-Baath University Provides the Community with Scientific Expertise

Homs, (ST) – Robot has become the most used machines in factories, companies and houses, where inside each robot there is a processor, which is considered the brain of the robot that is programmed to suit the works assigned to it. From this point, the Robotics Club at the Faculty of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Al-Baath University is a clear indication of the excellence and creativity of our students. To know more about the club Dr. Muhannad Makki, the Club supervisor, said: ” The club was established by the decision of the Head of Al- Baath University, on 22/1/2019 and the current headquarters of the club is the Department of Mechatronics in the Faculty of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.
The aim of creating the club is to strengthen the concept of linking the university with society in order to develop and activate the role of our scientific-applied colleges in providing the society with permanent scientific expertise which are capable of keeping abreast of what is new , in light of the importance of robotics science and its rapid development on both academic and international levels.

Achievements of the Club

Dr. Makki stressed: “We have done a free robotic course for sons of the university staff who is aged between 9-13. We will open a second course for the same age group.
The second achievement was the implementation of a course in the programming language (Pathyut). All those who passed the course received a certificate from the university presidency and the directorate of rehabilitation and training. For the robotic course for children, they have obtained a certificate from the WRO organization, which in turn qualifies the child to participate later in the robotics competition which will be held in Al-Fayhaa Hall in Damascus on 22-23-24, August , which is a country-level qualifier that qualifies them to participate in the World Championships due to be held in October.
We have also created a team in the club consisting of four students from the third year (Mechatronics Engineering) in addition to a trainer who is an engineer in the department. This, in turn, increases the student’s confidence and motivates his colleagues to follow him in addition to linking the theoretical education with the practical at the same time.
The team has been named Robobonics where each team chooses the name they want. The team participated in the championship (ARC5), the Arab Championship for robotic where the preliminary qualifying was held in Tishreen Hall in Damascus, within the category (Open), which is the category of university projects.
The title of the tournament was (Robot and Agriculture), which required developing a robot that can solve a problem in agriculture. The robot, which was developed by the participating team, is a robot designed to
harvest the olive crop. The idea was difficult to be implemented in terms of mechanics and control. However, as a result of the survey, we conducted an exploratory study with farmers, who consider olive harvest to be difficult tasks for a number of reasons. The foremost of which are; the olive harvest is slow and requires a large number of workers, therefore it is very expensive. In addition, the traditional harvesting is harmful to the branches. As a result, the crop will decline in the following year.
Dr. Makki continued: “The robot, which is developed by the team, can identify the olive tree by itself, approach it, put a rug under it and shakes the trunk of the tree, then it pulls the rug with the falling olive fruit to the so- called (container or reservoir within the robot) . After that it moves to the next tree until it Finishes the whole crop. It is worth noting that the robot has a very advanced navigation system, which means, (a Command and Guidance System), to help it move flexibly in all directions, which is important and vital in agricultural land.

The Robot Features

About the features of the designed robot, Dr. McKay said: “It is ten times faster than the traditional harvest (business) and it is not harmful to the olive tree because it does not deal with the branches.  In addition, it achieves an economic abundance, especially that it does not need workers. Since the robot is equipped with a weight cell, it records the weight of the crop for each tree and thus forms a database that can be used for research purposes.

 The ARC5 Competition

The competition was held in Damascus with the participation of all the Syrian universities, the Scientific Research Center and the private companies working in the robotics, where the team achieved the third place at the country level and the first place at the universities level.  The team then qualified for the Arab qualifiers held at the Lebanese University in Beirut with the participation of many Arab universities, for the second time, our team scored the third place, and the first place at the universities level.

New Projects

“During the second half of this month, a robotics course will be held for children aged between 9-13. The team will also prepare for participating in the World Robot Championship which will be held at Al Faiha Hall in Damascus on June 22-23-24 under the title (The Smart Cities), where the World qualifiers will be held in Hungary on 8/11/2019,” Dr. Makki concluded.

Amal Farhat – Homs