TEAMS from 24 schools are to converge on Winchester for a robot building competition.

The pupils, aged between nine and 16, will compete against each other in the First Lego League Challenge 2013 at Winchester Science Centre, Morn Hill, on Thursday.

Among the secondary schools taking part are Winchester’s Kings’ School and Perrins School in Alresford.

This year’s theme is “Nature’s Fury” and the “disaster blaster” challenge involves creating a robot to tackle a natural disaster, such as storm or earthquake, in a games arena.

The robot missions range from moving people to safety to tackling building damage.

Winchester Science Centre, formerly known as Intech, has hosted the southern England heat of the international competition for about ten years.

Judges give marks for teamwork, project presentation, robot performance, technical design and programming.

The best British school team will have a chance to compete in an international festival to be held in St Louis, USA. Last year, a team from Bath won.