NHK to screen ABU Robcon finals worldwide

Japan’s national public broadcaster NHK is to air the 2013 ABU Robocon finals on its World TV international channels.

It will go out on 27 and 28 October 2013, coinciding with the ABU General Assembly in Hanoi, Vietnam.

This year’s student robotics contest in Vietnam in August was won by the Kanazawa Institute of Technology in Japan, with home team Lac Hong University (Team 1) in second place. 

Based on the theme of Green Planet, each team had to construct a manual and an automatic robot to together “plant” giant “seeds” within three minutes on an obstacle course set up in the finals stadium in the central city of Da Nang.

In front of a crowd of 4,000 young supporters and filmed for worldwide distribution to ABU members, 19 teams from 18 countries fought out the final stages of the knock-out contest.

ABU Acting President Mr Naoji Ono said of the finals: “Under the extremely well-designed rules, ABU Robocon has been encouraging the youth in this region.”

NHK World broadcasts programs on satellite and cable TV around the world, on mobile devices and streamed on the Internet.