2023.09.13

Announcements

Preliminary rounds of the 4th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge were held in participating countries/ regions!

Experiment at Kibo
Kibo Utilization Office for Asia (KUOA)

Summary

The 4th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC)^*1 sponsored by JAXA began accepting applications for the Kibo-RPC on February 20, 2023, with a record number of 421 teams and 1685 applicants from 12 countries/regions. (Table 1). In the preliminary round, participants control the robot in a simulation environment and compete for elapsed time to reach the goal and laser accuracy. In the final round, the competition will take place in the Kibo module on orbit. In the preliminary round in each country/region, the designated targets underwent random changes over time among several predefined targets. Ten simulation scenarios were conducted, each with distinct conditions such as the sequence of changes. Rankings were established based on the average scores across these ten simulations.

Table 1 Participants from Kibo-ABC Member Country/Region and the U.S. and UNOOSA (in Alphabetical order)

Country/Region	Number of Teams	participants
Australia	3	19
Bangladesh	74	299
Japan	27	114
Malaysia	12	54
Nepal	1	10
Singapore	6	23
Taiwan	29	140
Thailand	182	718
UAE	8	43
Vietnam	1	4
United States	28	111
UNOOSA(United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs)	50	150
Total	421	1685

Regarding the preliminary round for each country/region

During the preliminary round period for each participating country/region, from the end of June to mid-July 2023, preliminary events in each country/region were held by the responsible organizations. Some countries/regions held the preliminary round as a major event, and the event was reported to be very exciting. Here are reports from the countries/regions that held preliminary events and the winning teams from each preliminary round, in alphabetical order!

(1) Australia

Several teams applied to participate, but unfortunately only one team was able to submit their program for the preliminary round. Therefore, they did not hold a preliminary event, but to finalize their scores, the organization in charge ran the program in a simulation environment, and Dream Rover was officially named the representative team.

Australia's Winning Team: Dream Rover

(Image by ASA, One Giant Leap Australia Foundation)

(2) Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the organization in charge ran the program in a simulation environment, and Team Paragon won. An online event will be held later to honor the winners.

Bangladesh’s Winning Team: Team Paragon

(3) Japan

The Japanese domestic preliminary round event was held online, and students participated remotely. Prior to the preliminary round event, the participants' programs were implemented by JAXA in a simulation environment, and the results of the average score implementation were played at the event and awards were given. After the preliminary round event, an online workshop was held, with lectures by JAXA staff, Professor Nakasuka of the University of Tokyo, and people involved in Int-Ball2 development, and a Q&A corner provided an opportunity for active discussion and exchange among the participants.

YouTube

The 4th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge Team Applications Results

Japan’s Winning Team: Eager Hoper

(4) Malaysia

No preliminary round event was held in Malaysia, and the institutions in charge ran the program in a simulation environment. The results were announced via social media, etc., and the winner was decided to be Zetsubo. Although they were unable to hold an event during the preliminary round period, the winning team will be invited to the Malaysia Space Agency (MYSA) for a tour of the facility before the final event.

Malaysia’s Winning Team: Zetsubo

(5) Nepal

Unfortunately, Nepal did not host a national preliminary round because the participants were not prepared in time.

(6) Singapore

Although several teams applied to participate, unfortunately only one team was able to submit a program for the preliminary round. Therefore, instead of holding a preliminary round event, the responsible organization ran the program in a simulation environment, and SST 1 was officially selected as the representative team.

Singapore’s Winning Team: SST 1

(7) Taiwan

In Taiwan, an offline preliminary round event was held to determine the ranking, which was based on a unique evaluation criterion (program simulation results: 70%, presentation on the day of the preliminary round event: 20%, promotional video created by the participants to introduce their teams and strategies: 10%). In the end, Flying Unicorns won the competition.

Taiwan’s Winning Team: Flying Unicorns

(8) Thailand

In Thailand, no preliminary round event was held. Instead, the institutions in charge ran the program in a simulation environment and announced the results on their websites and social media. The winner team was Galactic4.

NSTDA SPACE Education Facebook

NSTDA Website

Thailand’s Winning Team: Galactic4

(9) UAE

The UAE did not hold a preliminary round event, but the responsible organization ran the program in a preliminary simulation environment, and AUS-IEEE-RAS won the competition. The winning team was announced by the UAE astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS), who offered words of encouragement.

Video of UAE Astronauts Announcing Winner (mbrspacecentre Instagram)

Interview for the Winning Team (mbrspacecentre Instagram)

UAE’s Winning Team: AUS-IEEE-RAS

(10) Vietnam

Unfortunately, Vietnam was not able to hold the national preliminary round because the participants were not prepared in time.

(11) United States

In the United States, the agency in charge ran the program in a simulation environment, and the preliminary round event was held online. At the event, former astronaut Stephen Swanson announced the rankings, and Team Salcedo won the competition.

United States’ Winning Team: Team Salcedo

(12) UNOOSA (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affair)

The UNOOSA International Slot, which was added as a new framework from this year's competition, did not hold a preliminary round event, but rather the institutions in charge of the event ran their programs in a simulation environment. Based on the results and the presentations of the teams, the Indonesian university student team ORION won the competition.

UNOOSA’s Winning Team: ORION

The winning teams from each country/region in this year's national preliminary rounds received a ticket to participate in the Final Round on the ISS. In the Final Run, the winning student's program will be installed on the ISS onboard drone Astrobee, and the teams will compete against each other for the fastest completion of the game mission and the number of leaks repaired. The finalists are currently working on their programs and making final checks for the Final Run. The Final Round Event will be held around October, please look forward to their success to see which team will win.

For those teams that unfortunately did not make it to the finals, we hope that they will take what they have learned and experienced from this opportunity and use it in their future endeavors in a variety of fields. Kibo-RPC will be held again next year, we encourage students to give it another try!

Table 2 List of national and regional representative teams (in Alphabetical order)

Country/Region	Representative Team
Australia	Dream Rover
Bangladesh	Team Paragon
Japan	Eager Hoper
Malaysia	Zetsubo
Nepal	-
Singapore	SST 1
Taiwan	Flying Unicorns
Thailand	Galactic4
UAE	AUS-IEEE-RAS
Vietnam	-
United States	Team Salcedo
UNOOSA	ORION

*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 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through these activities, the program provides educational opportunities for students in the area to learn about robot operation and computer programming in space.