Winners announced for zenon Challenge 2014

3rd December 2014

Barney Scott

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In April 2014 COPA-DATA launched its engineering, usability and creativity competition called zenon Challenge, inviting teams from all over the world to create tangible, functioning control and visualisation applications using the HMI/SCADA software zenon and LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 robots.

This year, 20 teams equipped with a LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Kit and zenon from COPA-DATA participated in the challenge. In the end, ten teams fulfilled all requirements for entering the competition. Out of those ten submissions, Team ITS (Image Tweaking System) from the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences in Austria emerged as the winner.

The overall ranking was made up of three tasks the teams had to fulfil to gain crucial points.

40% of the total votes were given by the three members of the jury, according to project design, usability and creativity. The teams could gain a further 20% of their points by answering project-specific questions. The remaining 40% of points was achieved via the online fan community in the form of public votes.

First place: Team ITS - Image Tweaking System, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences

The six-member ITS team won the competition with a well thought out robot mechanism that used LEGO bricks to recreate a logo very accurately. Gero Gruber, Juror, Usability, zenon Challenge, explains: “The project gained points in the jury ranking particularly because of its usability factor. This is where the team was able to clearly stand out from the competition.”

Second place: Team Vives Automation, VIVES University College

The Vives Automation team from VIVES University College in Belgium ranked second place with their Delta Robot that arranged plastic balls according to colours in corresponding containers. In a nip and tuck race with Team ITS, only a few pivotal points were missing at the end for the win.

Third place: Team AGH, AGH University of Science and Technology

Team AGH from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow achieved the highest amount of points from the jury evaluation in the engineering category, with its 3-in-1 solution. Markus Wintersteller, Juror, Project Design, zenon Challenge, recaps: “Team AGH packed all three projects into one video and was able to prove extensive zenon know-how. This performance and the outstanding commitment were also rewarded with votes from the fan community.”