Junior Dance | Robótica 2015

The Junior Dance competition is a dynamic and interactive competition where robots from each team are programmed to perform a choreographed dance in sync with a song. Thus, this competition provides excellent artistic performances that are evaluated a specialist jury in both Robotics and Dance.

The contest takes place in a flat stage with a total area of 24m2 and the competing robots may not surpass its limits, delimited by tape. Robots are allowed clothes/costumes and the stage can be decorated, to give more shine to the competition.

This is the competition that attracts more pubic, in view of its animated features, diversity and spectacle. The creativity of young people has no limits making this competition very appealing. The Junior Dance is especially designed to primary, secondary and professional schools and is divided into two age groups: 8-14 and 15-19 years. However, teams from other educational institutions, research units, companies, electronic clubs or people on an individual basis may also register.

This competition follows the official rules of the RoboCup. The robots are programmed to move in sync with a song for 1-2 minutes.

There are two categories of presentations - Dance and Theatre:

Dance is a show where robots and the team move to the rhythm of a selected song. The evaluation focuses on the choreography and the robot(s) movement(s) and in sync with the action of team members.

Theatre is a show where music is part of the presentation. However, the robot(s) don´t have to move in sync with the music. The robot(s) must tell a story or develop a theme as a game. The performance will be judged by the way robot(s) and team members perform the theatrical theme.

Teams must specify the category of their presentation, so the jury can assess team performance in accordance with the rules of each category.

The first edition of this competition took place at the Festival Nacional de Robótica 2003 and it qualifies the Portuguese teams for the RoboCupJunior Dance competition in RoboCup2015 to be held in China. RoboCupJunior is a RoboCup event oriented strand of innovative educational projects for young students under 19 years of age.