The team calls itself (ASME Assiut), and won fifth place globally after competing with 20 teams from international universities in the (SDC) competition, affiliated with the American International Organization of Mechanical Engineers in the world.
Karim Salah, a member of the winning team, told Sky News Arabia that the competition is one of a group of competitions organized by (ASME), an organization with a student branch in which it provides lectures and assistance to students of all kinds, including competitions every year among universities around the world.
He added that the competition requires the design of a robot or a vehicle that works with a clean and renewable energy source, whether fully or partially, and whether the source is solar energy, air, pressure, water and others.
He continues: “Every year the rules of the competition change, as well as the source of energy, but the goal is one, which is to rely on a renewable energy source to reap the greatest possible benefit from it.”
And he added, “This year, the competition was based on manufacturing a robot whose dimensions do not exceed 50 x 50 x 50 cm in length, width and height, and that it moves a certain distance using water only so that as well as transfers it from one place to another, and after it reaches the place of unloading, it is filled again and the journey is repeated.”
Karim explained the idea of the robot working with water, saying: “The idea is very simple and is based on the descent of water from the tank on top of the movement turbine and it is wrapped, and the turbine is connected to a box connected in turn to the tires and moves them.
He explained, “After all the water descends into the lower tank, we open the valve to empty the water and place an alternative amount of it in the upper tank, repeat the cycle, and so on.
He said: “There is the possibility of placing a small hose to connect the bottom tank to the top so that the water rises from the bottom up and turns into an endless cycle, but the goal in the competition is to get rid of the bottom water and empty it and put new water to move again and reach another place and empty it and so on.”
He stressed that the evaluation in the competition is determined by several factors such as the quality and simplicity of the design, the number of laps and others, but the most important factor, which is the final one, is the total amount of water transported in a certain period of time, so the time and speed factor were important during the competition.
He stressed that the scale of the competition is very clear and simple due to the agreed parameters and the limited possibilities of the students, but the ideas that were implemented in a small thing have greater feasibility, and this is the goal.
He went on, “The idea that his team implemented was simple, which is to convert the static energy of the water into the kinetic energy of the wheels, but how to exploit the largest amount of water energy and manage the conditions in your favor is what distinguishes one team from the other.”
He pointed out that the robot they made is useful in reducing the use of energy sources that pollute the environment, and using a renewable, available and cheap source such as water for movement, and this is the main goal of the competition.
He concluded that as for the materials used in the robot, some of them are designs that were printed on a 3D printer and other materials were laser-cut, and all of these materials are available in Assiut Governorate.
He pointed out that Assiut University provided them with all the support they needed to manufacture the robot, especially that it is simple and easy to provide materials, as well as providing a laboratory for the team to complete the work inside.
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