Vasenai Soqo
Eight engineering students from the University of the South Pacific will represent the region at the prestigious Asia-Pacific Robotics Competition in Hong Kong next month.
The students hope to showcase the robots they designed from scratch on the international stage.
Fourth-year engineering student Danvil Singh says this year’s competition challenge is themed “Kung Fu Quest”.
Singh says that the team has developed two robots, one manually controlled and an autonomous one which uses artificial intelligence to identify and locate parts to complete competition tasks.
He adds that the competition will require the robots to assemble a staff and weapon, retrieve a Kung Fu Scroll and a box, and finally compete in a game of Tic-Tac-Toe.
Team captain Mahonilai Hakaumotu says his previous experience in international robotics competitions inspired him to join ABU Robocon.
“The challenges that I faced joining Robocon are that I thought that they were going to give some kind of robotic kits for us to build from there. But then, here we have to build it from scratch. So, we have to go buy our own materials and equipment to build our own robot, to accomplish the task that was given.”
The team has been preparing for the competition since November last year and will travel to Hong Kong in August to represent the Pacific at the Asia-Pacific Competition.
The competition will take place next month from the 21 to the 25 in Hong Kong.
