UTM's robots knock out China team to clinch top spot

JOHOR BARU: The success of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Robocon 2016 in Bangkok has brought pride to the country.

The team represented by Lim Wen Jin, 22, and Kevin Lau, Chai Kim Hung, Low Kah Seng, Chik Wen Xin and Muhammad Khairul Baihaki Mohd Jafry, all aged 21, created history when the two robots they invented knocked out the team from China.

Team manager Dr Mohd Ridzuan Ahmadi said UTM was determined to defend the title in Tokyo next year.

“Obviously we will face challenges but we certainly want to defend our title after defeating the strongest team from China in the competition in Bangkok on Aug 21,” he told Bernama.

Elaborating on their success in Bangkok, Mohd Ridzuan said the competition with the theme “Clean Energy Recharging The World” required the participants to use renewable energy with each team needing to build a stationary eco robot and a hybrid robot.

“The Eco Robot doesn’t have an actuator to drive itself. The driving force of the Eco Robot is obtained indirectly from the Hybrid Robot either by magnetic force, wind force or other forces.

“UTM opted to use wind force to enable the eco robot to move along the set route, in which both robots needed to climb the Wind Turbine Pole and assemble the Wind Turbine Propeller before ending the competition,” he said.

The senior lecturer of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering said the UTM team was formed with the participation of 39 students from UTM’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Computing and Faculty of Education.

Mohd Ridzuan said 17 teams from 16 countries took part in the competition.

Since its introduction in 2002, China has won the championship five times, Vietnam (five times), Thailand (twice), Japan (twice) and Malaysia finally won it for the first time this year. — Bernama