The 3rd Kibo Robot Programming Challenge Team applications closed

Kibo Utilization Office for Asia (KUOA)
Experiment at Kibo

The call for teams and program submissions for the 3rd Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC)*1 hosted by JAXA have now closed. The Preliminary Rounds for each participating country/region have started accordingly.

Participating Team Submission Result

A total of 12 countries/regions (Table.1) from Kibo-ABC*2 member countries/regions and the United States participated in this competition, receiving 351 team (1431 students) applications. We thank you very much for the significant number of entries.

For this competition, teams from outside the Kibo-RPC participating countries/regions are able to participate by forming a joint multinational team, Worldwide Team. This has allowed students from Brazil, Costa Rica, India, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia to participate. (Of the total 351 teams, there are 13 Worldwide Teams).

Table.1 Participants by Each Country and Region

Country/Region	No. of Teams
Australia	3
Bangladesh	25
Indonesia	10
Japan	34
Malaysia	19
Nepal	0
New Zealand	15
Singapore	9
Taiwan	20
Thailand	197
United States of America	18
Vietnam	1
TOTAL	351 (Include 13 worldwide teams)

The Preliminary Round and the Final Round

Each participating team will create a program called APK (Android Application Package) to control the robot in orbit and compete in the Preliminary Rounds held in their respective countries/regions. The deadline for APK submissions was June 27. The Preliminary Rounds are held in each participating country/region from June 28 through July 12, and the winning team will go on to the on-orbit Final Round, which will schedule on the International Space Station (ISS) in the coming September.

Schedule

June 6, 2022: Application deadline
June 27, 2022: APK submission deadline
June 28 - July 12, 2022: Preliminary Rounds for each country/region (utilizing JAXA's simulation environment)
June 28 - July 12, 2022: The period of the Preliminary Round
September 2022: On-orbit Final Round (in Kibo environment on the ISS, utilizing actual Astrobee robot)

The 3rd Kibo-RPC official website

https://jaxa.krpc.jp

*1　Kibo-RPC
Kibo-RPC is a collaboration of JAXA and NASA based on Japan-U.S. cooperation through the Japan-U.S. Open Platform Partnership Program (JP-US OP3) to promote Kibo utilization in the Asia-Pacific region and to contribute to the SDGs (human resource development). Through these activities, the program provides educational opportunities for students in the area to learn about robot operation and computer programming in space.

*2　Kibo-ABC
Asian Beneficial Collaboration through Kibo Utilization (Kibo-ABC) is a collaborative initiative under the framework of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF). It aims to promote Kibo utilization in the Asia-Pacific region, and Kibo-RPC is a part of Kibo-ABC activities. Prospective teams to the Kibo-RPC must submit an application form to the space agency or designated organization of their Kibo-ABC member country/region participating in the Kibo-RPC.