First victory for a Malaysian team in ABU Robocon

The 15th ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest (ABU Robocon) was held in Bangkok, Thailand on Sunday 21 August with 17 university teams from 16 countries and regions vying for the title of handmade robot champion. 

ABU Robocon is an annual contest that brings together robots designed and built by selected teams of university students in the Asia-Pacific region. It started in 2002, and is also an international program co-production in which participating TV stations air highlights of the contest from the images provided by the host broadcaster.

Under this year’s theme “Clean Energy Recharging the World”, each teams use two robots, Eco and Hybrid, to go through the winding course. Eco robot, without driving force, runs three zones with zigzagriver and hills by Hybrid robot’s help using wind, magnetic, or gravity force. After surviving the course, Hybrid robot climbs up the wind turbine pole and attaches propeller.  Participating teams are expected to challenge creating unique robots. 

Yesterday, Malaysia’s Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and China’s Northeastern University advanced to the final.The team of Malaysia has won a close match showing solid performance. This is the first victory as a Malaysian team in ABU Robocon. Meanwhile, Tokyo University represented Japan in Robocon for the fifth time. They’ve put up a brave fight, however, they were narrowly beaten in the semi-final round by Northeastern University, China.

NHK will broadcast the contest in nationwide program, “ABU Robocon 2016”. It is scheduled to be aired on NHK GTV (terrestrial channel) on Thursday, September 22.

ABU Robocon 2017 will be held in Tokyo, Japan.