Team represents Canada in the WorldSkills Competition in Shizuoka.
Mississauga - At an informal gathering on Tuesday April 10th, Robotino® was handed into the eager hands of the Canadian Robotics team who will proudly represent Canada in the WorldSkills Competition in Shizuoka, Japan this November.
The Canadian launch of Robotino® was hosted by Christian Kalemba and took place during a P111 Introduction to Pneumatics Didactic course being held that week, allowing the course participants to take part in the event. They were able to learn first hand about the technology this exciting new learning system from Festo encompasses and the purpose of WorldSkills. Most importantly, they were able to meet the Canadian Robotics Team and wish them well.
Christian Kalemba presents Robotino® to the Canadian Robotics Team.
Left to right: Andrew Kramer, Christian Kalemba, Chad Whittington (Instructor & Coach) and Chris Rintjemar.
Festo is the first global corporate sponsor of WorldSkills and for more than a decade has been the sponsor of the Mechatronics competitions around the world and in Canada.
The 2007 WorldSkills Competition will take place in Japan this November, where in addition to the approximate 35 technical contests (including Mechatronics), 7 countries will be participating in a new contest: Robotics. This will hopefully be an official event at the 2009 WorldSkills Calgary Competition. Festo is proud to be the global corporate sponsor of the Robotics competition in addition to Mechatronics.
“Robotics has been in the planning stages for a few years now and was triggered by excellent missionary work by Bob Tone, a highly motivated and dedicated Toronto teacher who has been running the Ontario and Canadian Robotics Skills Competitions” says Kalemba. Tone is also a WorldSkills Chief Expert.
Tone spoke passionately about the many generations of robots he has seen from Festo and also about upcoming modifications that may be made to the existing robot. He went on to speak about the challenges the teams will face and the technology behind Robotino®.
Tone, Andrew Kramer and Chris Rintjemar (the twoperson Canadian Robotics Team, who were the Gold Medal Winners of the 2006 Canadian Skills Robotics Competition), their coach, Chad Whittington, and
Laurent Thibault (Canadian Special Delegate to WorldSkills and Director Skills Canada) were all in attendance for the handover ceremony.
That sentiment alone is in part what WorldSkills is about, motivating and inspiring successive generations to view vocational skills as fulfilling and creative in a fast-paced competitive world.
