Festo is a founding partner of WorldSkills, the world’s largest international skills competition. This vocational initiative assists in the education of up and coming engineering talent in many countries by exposing them to fresh ideas and top class standards across the world. Festo South Africa sponsored four young local talents from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) to attend the 41st WorldSkills event, which took place in London from 5 to 8 October 2011. They faced stiff contest from a strong field of about 1000 artisans from 50 countries in 46 skills areas.
Equipment comprising a Robotino (a mobile robot system for education, training and research made by Festo Didactic), a gyroscope, an inductive sensor and a forklift, including the technical documentation for installation, was supplied by Festo to all competing teams.
The Postal Bot that competitors in the mobile robotics competition built using equipment supplied by Festo
The NMMU team entered the Mobile Robotics competition and earned a well-deserved 10th place overall. This competition was won by Korea, trailed by Japan and Indonesia. The CPUT team competed in the Mechatronics competition, in which Japan and Brazil both won gold and Sweden and Korea each earned a bronze medal.
“Festo South Africa is proud of the commitment and dedication shown by the youngsters. We believe that they learned a lot from attending and competing, and that these skills will stand them in good stead in future. It will also add to the local knowledge base in this exciting field,” says Horst Weinert, Festo Didactic manager, South Africa.
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