SGS Berkeley Green UTC 
SGS Pegasus School 
SGS Forest High School 9th December 2022
Hexapod, National Design Competition
This week, our students received the results of a national CAD competition. The competition was to design a hexagonal robot called a ‘Hexapod’, using industry leading, Fusion 360 software. Students have been developing their skills since September, and earlier this term, submitted their entries. There was tough competition from other UTCs across the country but we are thrilled to announce that our students won two of the three competition categories.
The first winner was Juliette Boyd in Year 10. Her design ‘Hexaflora’ (gardening assistant robot) won the ‘Most unique and comprehensive hexapod design’ – judged on creative flair and design features. Of the top 3 entries in this category, two were from our UTC, with Joe Cox’s entry also placing in the top 3 designs.
Category 2 was to create the ‘Best render’ – judged on creative, high quality, imaginative rendering. Joe Cox in Y11 won this category with his ‘A fish out of water’ design. Joe’s entry took a fun approach, allowing a goldfish to explore the world by controlling the robot through a neural link. In this design, Joe employed cutting-edge A.I. technology to generate a number of components from the criteria he’d set.
Also successful in this category was Ben Maers in Y10. His ‘Lock-bot’ came in 2nd to Joe’s design. This Hexapod is designed to access and inspect dangerous buildings and environments. It is equipped with a number of replaceable tools in order to be able to complete this task. Ben made fantastic use of lighting effects in his design to create a number of glowing components.
Congratulations go to all of the students who entered the competition, the variety and complexity of their designs was truly impressive. We are really pleased with these results and can’t wait for the next competition.
