The 5th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge Preliminary Round was held in each participating country/region!

From the end of June to early July 2024, preliminary round events were held by each of the corresponding organizations. Some countries/region held the preliminary round as a major event, and the event generated a great deal of excitement.
Here are reports from the countries/region that held preliminary round events and the winning teams from each preliminary round event! (in alphabetical order)

In Australia, Australian Space Agency (ASA) and One Giant Leap Australia Foundation (OGL) ran the program in a simulated environment for the preliminary round, and the preliminary round event was held online. The results of the simulator run revealed that Dream Rover won the competition again, continuing their success from the previous year.

In Bangladesh, STEMX365 ran the program in a simulated environment for the preliminary round. The results of the preliminary round were announced on social networking sites, and team_mukul won the competition.

In Japan, preliminary round event was held at JAXA's Tsukuba Space Center and online as a hybrid. Prior to the preliminary round, JAXA ran the participants' programs in a simulated environment, and awards were given at the event based on the average score implementation results.
After the preliminary round event, a workshop was held including online participants. A special tour of the Tsukuba Space Center was also held for participants who visited the JAXA Tsukuba Space Center.

In Malaysia, Malaysian Space Agency (MYSA) ran the program in a simulated environment for the preliminary round. The results of the preliminary round were announced via various social networking sites, and Techwin won the competition.

This year, one team applied and submitted a program for the preliminary round. Therefore, instead of holding a preliminary round, Nepal Scientific Activities and Research Center (NESARC) ran the program in a simulated environment for the preliminary round and announced the result via e-mail. As a result, TEAM PGS officially became the representative team for Nepal.

For the first time, the Philippines participated in Kibo-RPC. Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) ran the program in a simulated environment for the preliminary round and announced the results via e-mail. As a result, Inflection Point won the competition.

In Singapore, Singapore Space and Technology Limited (SSTL） ran the program in a simulation environment for the preliminary round. As a result, SST 1 won the competition again, for the second year in a row.

A preliminary round event was held onsite in Taiwan, and the ranking was determined based on the original evaluation criteria (program simulation results: 70%, presentation on the day of the preliminary round event (team introduction, innovations, etc.): 20%, YouTube video created by the participants (review of Kibo-RPC, message to the astronauts, etc.): 10%). The result was CHIPI-CHIPI CHAPA-CHAPA DUBI-DUBI DABA-DABA won.

In Thailand, National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) ran the programs in a simulated environment for the preliminary round and announced the results on their websites and social networking sites. The winner was Astronut, and an online event was also held for the winning team.

In the UAE, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) ran the program in a simulated environment for the preliminary round event. The results were presented at an online preliminary round event, and UF0 was the winner.

The UNOOSA International Slot, which was added as a new framework since the last competition, did not have a preliminary round event, but rather the organization in charge of the event ran their programs in a simulated environment for the preliminary round. Based on the simulation results and the presentations of the teams, the Indonesian university student team ORION 1 won the competition.

In the U.S., NASA ran the program in a simulated environment for the preliminary round. The results of the preliminary round were announced during the online event, and Salcedo won the competition, continuing their streak from last year.

This year, one team applied and submitted a program for the preliminary round. Therefore, instead of a preliminary round, Space Technology Institute, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST-STI) ran the program in a simulated environment for the preliminary round and as a result, Pho_VietNam was officially selected as the representative team.

The winning team from each country/region in this year's preliminary rounds received a ticket to participate in the Final Round on the International Space Station (ISS). At the Final Round on-orbit, the winning students’ programs will be installed in the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” of the ISS onboard drone Astrobee to compete for the best image recognition accuracy and the fastest completion of the mission. The Final Round on-board will be held in September and the Final Round Event on the ground will be held in November to announce the results of the on-orbit competition. We are looking forward to seeing which team will win the competition.

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, so students are encouraged to participate again!