Waroona District High School students put STEM skills to the test with autonomous tour guide kart project

It is not your average assignment, but it is one some local high school students have taken on board as they put their STEM skills to the test.

A group of Year 8 and 9 students from Waroona District High School are currently working on building an autonomous tour guide kart as part of its extracurricular robotics club.

The school’s maths teacher Miin-Tyi Chao said the project was first suggested to him by UWA professor Thomas Braunl back in 2020.

“The idea was appealing because it fits with the current trend of artificial intelligence used in electric cars,” he said.

While most students are interested in playing sport for their extracurricular activities, Mr Chao wanted to provide a program for those interested in science and engineering.

“I wanted to make sure that the students were not disadvantaged by our regional location and small high school numbers compared to the large metropolitan schools,” Mr Chao said.

After creating the robotics club, the school partnered with the university to supply the technology for the project, with Alcoa providing funding support.

The autonomous kart project was chosen following several weeks of discussions among students.

The kart is being designed to guide the school’s Year 4 or 5 students around the secondary school area of WDHS, with an audio system to provide information about various departments to the kart riders.

The kart works by moving between waypoints, which are created using inputs on the kart’s inbuilt GPS system. It will have inbuilt safety features which allow it to stop when a person or obstacle is in its way.

As it currently stands, students have managed to get the kart to drive forward, back, left and right autonomously.

Student Isabelle Mendoza said the coding aspect had been the most interesting part of the project so far.

“I like finding out what works to communicate with the computer through all the coding programs and projects we have been doing,” she said.

“Being able to create a bunch of things through coding on computers is just all very fascinating. I love discovering all of it.”

Fellow student Jake Paterson described the programming as a challenge, but noted it had become a lot easier with the right assistance.

“Programming is an awesome skill to have and opens up a heap of opportunities in the future workforce,” he said.

Mr Chao is hoping the project will encourage the students to choose a STEM pathway in Years 11 and Year 12.

“When students engage in a practical task like the autonomous kart project, I can use the process to explain various scenarios where science and mathematics are used in problem solving, hence why these subjects are essential,” he said.

The kart was put on display to the public at the Waroona Show last month along with a small Lego robot dog the students have also programmed.

Students are expecting to start compiling and combining data soon to create a tour journey, with the hope of getting the kart to drive autonomously and stopping before an obstacle by the end of the school year.