"The World Robot Olympiad (WRO) International Final concluded in Singapore on Friday, bringing together nearly 1,600 students from more than 90 countries for a showcase of robotics designed to address real-world challenges. Footage from the three-day event shows teams, some with members as young as eight, making final adjustments to their robots before presenting their innovations to judges across four competition categories. “There's a lot of energy, a lot of good vibes and a lot of technology,” said the coach of team Data Raiders as preparations got underway. Among the standout projects was 'Sprout', an intelligent space greenhouse designed to grow plants in orbit. “It has four platforms where we cultivate the plants. What it does is that it rotates and places the plants perpendicular to the base to create what we call centrifugal gravity as it spins," one contestant explained. A team from Zimbabwe presented a project targeting illegal logging and wood poaching, which contribute to the country’s annual loss of around 327,000 hectares of forest and rising CO2 emissions. “We saw that in the long run, this will lead to climate change, global warming, species extinction, and even the destruction of our biodiversity. So we had to develop a solution because this will negatively impact us as human beings in the future,” the team said. Organisers said this year’s theme, 'The Future of Robots', drew a record 600 teams presenting ideas in sustainability, health and accessibility. Established in 2004, the WRO sees students qualify through national heats before advancing to the international stage. A new feature at this year’s competition was 'Expand Space', organised by Space Faculty, aimed at fostering cross-industry collaboration and bringing together visionary concepts from the space, robotics and AI sectors."