// R.U.R. TEAM 5996 // CZECHIA
Our Team
We are a group of students and mentors united by a passion for technology. Meet the people behind the robots, our history, and the partners helping us grow.
PRAHA // MINNEAPOLIS
// FOUNDED
2016
FIRST FRC SEASON
// ENGINEERING
10+
ROBOTS BUILT
// ACTIVE MEMBERS
20+
STUDENTS & MENTORS
// CZECH PIONEER
1.
FIRST FRC TEAM IN CZ
// 02 // TEAM MEMBERS
Team Members
Students, mentors, and coaches who design, manufacture, and program our competition machines.
Dominika Kodlová
Head coach
Vojtěch Dašek
Coach
Adam Kafka
Mentor
// 01 // WORLD COMPETITION & MISSION
FIRST Robotics Competition
The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is a challenge where high school students, under strict rules and with limited resources and time, must raise funds, develop a team identity and brand, organize themselves, and build a robot of human proportions and superhuman abilities that could rival those of major tech giants—all to compete in an annually changing competition. According to many FRC alumni now working in computer science and engineering, the experience comes closest to real-world tech jobs they’ve encountered.
FRC is the most prestigious robotics and technology competition in the U.S., with a community and scale comparable to major sports events. Our regional event fills an entire professional basketball arena and is attended by Minnesota state senators, university representatives, and local officials.
Major sponsors include Boeing, Medtronic, Apple, Amazon, 3M, NASA, and many more leading tech companies.
FRC is the most prestigious robotics and technology competition in the U.S., with a community and scale comparable to major sports events. Our regional event fills an entire professional basketball arena and is attended by Minnesota state senators, university representatives, and local officials.
Major sponsors include Boeing, Medtronic, Apple, Amazon, 3M, NASA, and many more leading tech companies.
// PIT AREA // SERVIS A DIAGNOSTIKA
// ARÉNA // ZÁPASY A STRATEGIE
// 04 // ACADEMIC PARTNERS
Partner Schools & International Exchange
Thanks to Gymnasium PORG in Prague and our partner school Breck in the US, we build robots and travel to world events.
// PRAHA, ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA // DOMOVSKÁ ZÁKLADNA
Gymnázium PORG
PORG Libeň is an eight-year grammar school established in 1990 as the first private school of its kind in the Czech Republic. One of the extracurricular activities students can join is the robotics club, which takes place in the workshop in the school basement. Besides providing space, the school offers the team mentors and financial support. Both the school and the team prove that a small and cozy environment with a family atmosphere significantly contributes to achieving great things.
PRAHA // DOMOVSKÁ ŠKOLA
USA // HOSTING & WORKSHOP
// MINNEAPOLIS, MN, USA // EXCHANGE PROGRAM
Breck School
Most PORG students go abroad to study in their sixth year. This is made easier by PORG’s cooperation with several partner schools abroad. Among them is Breck. It is a prestigious private school in Golden Valley, Minneapolis, attended by more than 1000 students, and thanks to cooperation with it, we can participate in the competition. Breck annually provides support for our trip to the USA; in Minneapolis, we stay with families of their students and at their school we have the opportunity to assemble our robot, which must be disassembled into parts for air transport.
// 05 // CHRONOLOGY & MILESTONES
Team History
The team journey from an initial spark at PORG to world championship appearances in the US.
ARCHIV TÝMU // 2016
// ERA INDEX
- 2015 Origins & Founding
- 2016 Rookie Wild Card to Worlds
- 2019 20 Members & Automation
- 2020–21 Pandemic Hiatus
- 2022 Restart & New Generation
- 2024 Engineering excellence
It all started in 2015 when Jáchym Solecký, then a sixth-year student, like many other PORG students before him, went to the USA. He studied at the partner school Breck, where he became interested in the robotics club. In America, robotics is a recognized and common activity for ambitious students. It was immediately clear this was perfect for PORG, where many active and motivated students are interested in programming and engineering. With the support of the physics teacher Jakub Haláček, the team began to take shape. Currently, there are only seven such teams in Europe including us, and in 2015 there were only three. Our school didn’t even have proper space to build a robot. At first, the team worked in the physics lab, later they got their own space in a former art room. The name R.U.R. was chosen after the play where the word 'robot' appeared for the first time.
Our first competition was very successful. The robot was simple and unprofessional (using stroller wheels, etc.), but ideal for crossing obstacles and defending against other robots. This earned the team not only the title of best rookie but also a 'Wild Card' allowing us to advance to the world finals in St. Louis. This remains our best result to date.
Another notable competition was in 2019. The robot was more sophisticated, but with that came complications. We added shooting systems and basic automation. Our creation was finally a serious competitor, and we could think of success realistically. By then, a twenty-member team was working on the robot. For the first time, the programmers’ group took control of the robot’s success; before, they only worked on trivial tasks. However, in America, various mechanisms stopped working for different reasons, and our robot was again used only for movement on the field and defense.
Even this period is now forgotten by current team members. In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic prevented us, as EU citizens, from attending the competition, and the 2021 event wasn’t held at all. All enthusiastic robotics students from previous years had graduated, so they couldn’t participate. Even the physics teacher who led the activity was no longer at the school. This almost meant the end of robotics at PORG, as there were no participants or mentors left.
Facing this unacceptable situation for such a popular and successful activity, two former PORG students and robotics enthusiasts decided to breathe new life into the R.U.R. team. They organized a recruitment event for students in the then 4th and 5th grades, showed them what the robot can do and what their ambitions are. The recruitment was successful; mechanics and programmers among the students signed up, creating a completely new team.
team_history6