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2024.09.26
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The 5th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge Preliminary Round was held in each participating country/region!

  • Experiment at Kibo
  • Kibo Utilization Office for Asia (KUOA)
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Summary

The 5th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC) *1 sponsored by JAXA opened on February 20, 2024, for applications from countries/region participating in Kibo-RPC. A record number of 2,788 individuals of 661 teams applied (Table 1) in the 5th Kibo-RPC. The distinguished feature of the Kibo-RPC this year is that participants make a program to control the ISS onboard drone “Astrobee” to perform image recognition and compete in terms of its accuracy and speed. The programs were run with 10 simulation patterns with different types of images and different difficulty conditions, and the ranking of the participating teams was determined based on the average scores of the 10 runs.

Table 1 Kibo-RPC Participants

Country/Region (alphabetical order) Teams Participants
Australia 7 43
Bangladesh 160 677
Japan 29 123
Malaysia 42 182
Nepal 1 5
Philippines 29 154
Singapore 11 53
Taiwan 68 322
Thailand 200 724
UAE 17 94
United States of America 42 160
UNOOSA 54 254
Vietnam 1 7
Total 661 2788

About the preliminary round for each 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)

(1) Australia

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.

Australia's Winning Team: Dream Rover

(Image by ASA, OGL)

(2) Bangladesh

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.

Bangladesh’s Winning Team: team_mukul

(Image by STEMX365)

(3) Japan

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.

Japan’s Winning Team: Celestial-Ravens

(4) Malaysia

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.

Malaysia’s Winning Team: Techwin

(Image by MYSA)

(5) Nepal

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.

Nepal’s Winning Team: TEAM PGS

(Image by NESARC)

(6) Philippines

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.

Philippines' Winning Team: Inflection Point

(Image by PhilSA)

(7) Singapore

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.

Singapore’s Winning Team: SST 1

(Image by SSTL)

(8) Taiwan

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.

Taiwan’s Winning Team: CHIPI-CHIPI CHAPA-CHAPA DUBI-DUBI DABA-DABA

(Image by TASA)
(Image by TASA)

(9) Thailand

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.

Thailand’s Winning Team: Astronut

(Image by NSTDA)
(Image by NSTDA)

(10) UAE

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.

UAE’s Winning Team: UF0

(Image by MBRSC)
(Image by MBRSC)

(11) United States

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.

US's Winning Team: Salcedo

(Image by NASA)

(12) UNOOSA (UN Outer Space Affairs Division)

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.

UNOOSA’s Winning Team: ORION 1

(Image by UNOOSA)

(13) Vietnam

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.

Vietnam’s Winning Team: Pho_VietNam

(Image by VAST-STI)

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!

Table 2 List of national and regional representative teams

Country/Region (alphabetical order) Representative team
Australia Dream Rover
Bangladesh team_mukul
Japan Celestrial-Ravens
Malaysia Techwin
Nepal TEAM PGS
Philippines Inflection Point
Singapore SST 1
Taiwan CHIPI-CHIPI CHAPA-CHAPA DUBI-DUBI DABA-DABA
Thailand Astronut
UAE UF0
United States of America Salcedo
UNOOSA ORION 1
Vietnam Pho_VietNam

*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.

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