As an alternative event- due to COVID-19, and although not an ‘official contest’, an online ‘ABU ROBOCON FESTIVAL’ is planned for this fall. It will be hosted by the ABU and organised by the ABU Robocon Tokyo Secretariat.

The registered broadcasters will be asked to select maximum of two representative teams through some kind of screening. The selected teams shall send short video clip of their robots to Tokyo so we can introduce them on the ABU ROBOCON FESTIVAL website. Teams participating in this festival will check those videos sent by other teams, evaluate and vote for the best 3 teams. We plan to launch this website in early October.

In addition, an online meeting event using ZOOM is planned in December. It is an event where the participating team members gather online to interact with each other. There will be a technical exchange meeting and an announcement of the best 3 teams.

The Tokyo Secretariat will also set up a special website called ‘Robocon Fest 2020” for teams who did not get selected as representatives but have robots to show & share. They can take videos of their robots and freely post the video clips on this website. Using this platform, ‘Roboconists’ from around the world will get to see each other’s robots and learn from each other. This website will also launch in early October.

Secretary General of the ABU, Dr Javad Mottaghi stated: “We see this event as an opportunity to run the Robocon successfully in 2020 online and we are keen to share this successful experience with all our members and audiences.”

This is truly a very unusual time, and there are many things that we are still unsure of. But the one thing we can all be absolutely sure of is that everything will work out if we work together!