2025.10.01

Announcements

The preliminary rounds for the 6th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge were held in each participating country and region!

Experiment at Kibo
Kibo Utilization Office for Asia (KUOA)

Overview

JAXA hosted the 6th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC), which began accepting applications on February 17, 2025. This year's competition draws participation from a total of 13 countries, regions, and organizations, including the 11 Kibo-ABC member countries/regions that regularly participate in the Kibo-RPC, as well as the United States of America and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). We received a record-breaking 738 team applications, totaling 3,082 participants (see Table 1). The challenge for this year's Kibo-RPC was to program the Astrobee drone robot aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to perform image recognition tasks. Teams were judged on both the accuracy and speed of their code. The competition involved running 10 different simulation patterns with varying image types and difficulty levels. The final ranking was determined by the average score of all 10 simulations.

Table 1 Kibo-RPC Participation Breakdown

Country/Region (alphabetical order)	Teams	Participants
Australia	9	38
Bangladesh	130	575
Indonesia	28	127
Japan	33	149
Malaysia	90	391
Nepal	6	25
Philippines	27	156
Singapore	21	68
Taiwan	77	307
Thailand	208	759
UNOOSA	51	235
United States of America	56	240
Vietnam	2	12
Total	738	3,082

Preliminary Rounds in Each Country and Region

Between late June and early July 2025, during the designated preliminary round period in each participating country and region, local organizing bodies held their respective competitions. In several cases, these preliminary rounds were staged as major events, with reports indicating they were met with strong enthusiasm.
Reports from the countries and regions that hosted preliminary events and information on the winning teams from each preliminary round will be presented in alphabetical order!

(1) Australia

In Australia, the local organizer, One Giant Leap Australia, ran each team's program in the preliminary round simulation environment. Dream Rover was the winner for the second consecutive year.

Australia's Winning Team: Dream Rover

(Image by ASA, One Giant Leap Australia Foundation)

(2) Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the local organizer, STEMX 365, conducted each team's program in the preliminary round simulation environment. Cortex Robotics was declared the winner, with the results officially announced on social media.

The Internet Today Bangladesh, Instagram

TBS Graduates, Instagram

Bangladesh’s Winning Team: Cortex Robotics

(3) Indonesia

In Indonesia, 28 teams took part in the competition. Before the preliminary round, the local organizer, BRIN/INASA, ran each team's program in the simulation environment. At the online domestic preliminary event held on July 3rd, students attended a program introduction and a keynote speech. Based on the average scores obtained from the prior simulations, Narantaka GMAT was crowned the winning team.

Indonesia’s Winning Team: Narantaka GMAT

Online Event in Indonesia :

Opening ceremony by head of Research Center for Space, ORPA-BRIN

Space cooperation and education presentation by Executive Director of INASA-BRIN

Talent Scouting programs presented by Director of Directorate Talent Management-BRIN

Engineering in Space Science presented by Researcher from Research Center for Space, ORPA-BRIN

(4) Japan

Japan's preliminary round was held as a hybrid event, at the JAXA Tsukuba Space Center and online. Before the main event, the local organizer, JAXA, ran each team's program in a simulation environment. Based on the average scores from these runs, FUNABASHI was declared the winner. Additionally, the results of the newly established Beginners Course were announced, with the winning team, Astrobot, receiving the award.
After the preliminary round, a workshop was held for all participants, including online participants. Additionally, a special tour of the JAXA Tsukuba Space Center was organized for participants who visited the facility in person.

Topics from JAXA's Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate (Japanese)

Kibo Utilization Network X

Japan’s Winning Team: FUNABASHI

(5) Malaysia

In Malaysia, the local organizer, MYSA, ran each team's program in the preliminary round simulation environment, and Automen won the competition.

Facebook

Instagram

Malaysia’s Winning Team: Automen

(6) Nepal

This year, six teams applied and submitted their programs for the preliminary round. The local organizer, NESARC, ran each team's program in the preliminary round simulation environment and 404 Yeti Not Found took first place.

Nepal’s Winning Team: 404 Yeti Not Found

(7) Philippines

In the Philippines, the local organizer, PhilSA, ran each team's program in the preliminary round simulation environment. For the second consecutive year, Inflection Point emerged as the winner. The results were announced via a press release and on social media.

PhilSA Website

Facebook

Instagram

Philippines' Winning Team: Inflection Point

(8) Singapore

In Singapore, the local organizer, SSTL, ran each team's program in the preliminary round simulation environment, and Astrovibe was declared the winner.

Singapore’s Winning Team: Astrovibe

(9) Taiwan

In Taiwan, the local organizer, TASA, held an on-site preliminary event, with rankings determined through a unique evaluation system: 90% from program simulation results and 10% from a presentation on the day of the preliminary round, which included team introductions and points of innovation. iTron was declared the winner of this round.

Taiwan’s Winning Team: iTron

(10) Thailand

In Thailand, the local organizer, NSTDA, ran each team's program in the preliminary round simulation environment. Syntax Waiyakorn won the competition, and the announcement for the winning team was made the following day. An awards ceremony will be held on Friday, August 29th, at Nippon Haku Bangkok.

Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Website

NSTDA Website

Thailand’s Winning Team: Syntax Waiyakorn

(11) United States of America

In the United States, the local organizer, NASA, ran each team's program in the preliminary round simulation environment. The preliminary results were announced during an online event, and the StarStrikers were crowned the champions of the preliminary round.

US’s Winning Team: StarStrikers

(12) UNOOSA

For UNOOSA, 51 teams from 25 countries participated. After running each team's program in the preliminary round simulation environment and evaluating both the simulation results and each team's presentation, the Pakistani university team, 5AM, was declared the winner.

UNOOSA’s Winning Team: 5AM

(13) Vietnam

Two teams applied, and one of them submitted a program for the preliminary round. Therefore, no preliminary competition was held. The local organizer, VNSC, ran and evaluated the program using the preliminary round simulation environment, and Yellow Stars were officially selected as the representative team of Vietnam.

Vietnam’s Winning Team: Yellow Stars

The winning teams from each country and region's preliminary round (see Table 2) have now earned their ticket to the finals. In the final competition, the teams will compete on the accuracy of their image recognition and the speed at which they complete their mission. Check back for updates on which team will emerge victorious!

To the teams that did not advance to the finals this time, we hope you will use what you've learned and experienced to find success in various fields in the future. There will be another Kibo-RPC competition, so we encourage students to take on the challenge again!

Table 2 List of national and regional representative teams

Country/Region (alphabetical order)	Representative team
Australia	Dream Rover
Bangladesh	Cortex Robotics
Indonesia	Narantaka GMAT
Japan	FUNABASHI
Malaysia	Automen
Nepal	404 Yeti Not Found
Philippines	Inflection Point
Singapore	Astrovibe
Taiwan	iTron
Thailand	Syntax Waiyakorn
United States of America	StarStrikers
UNOOSA	5AM
Vietnam	Yellow Stars

*1　Kibo-RPC
The Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC) is a collaborative effort between JAXA and NASA, conducted under the framework of the Japan-U.S. Open Platform Partnership Program (JP-US OP3). Its goal is to promote the use of the Kibo module in the Asia-Pacific region and to contribute to the SDGs, particularly in human resource development. Through this activity, the program provides students in the region with educational opportunities related to space robotics and computer programming.