Japan’s Kanazawa Institute of Technology wins ABU Robocon 2013

The Kanazawa Institute of Technology came away with the top prize at the 12th ABU Robocon (Robot Contest), held in Danang, central Vietnam, beating 19 teams from 18 countries.

Under the theme of “The Green Planet,” each of the 19 teams entered two robots, one automatic, one manual, which worked together to place cylindrical plant buds on a field, onto which had been drawn a representation of the Earth. The automatic robot loaded the buds onto the manual robot, which then attempted to throw and land them on a raised platform representing the moon. The duration of each match was set at three minutes and the first team to successfully land a bud on the moon within that time limit won the match.

Each match was held in a tournament format, pitting two teams against each other. After several bouts, the Kanazawa Institute of Technology team and Vietnam’s Lac Hong University team advanced to the final.

In the hotly contested final, Kanazawa, defeated Lac Hong to take the tournament. This was the second time for a team from Japan to win the contest – an ABU Robocon record – following on from Tokyo University’s success in 2005.

ABU Robocon 2014 will be held in the Indian city of Pune.