【Reported by Ya-ting Li, Tamkang Times】Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and director of the Automation Intelligence and Robotics Center, Ching-Chang Wong, and Assistant Professors, Chi-tai Cheng and Shih-an Li, lead the team team to the Federation of International Robot-soccer Association (FIRA) Competition that took place in Malaysia on from the 24th to the 29th. This is the 18th year to hold this competition and the robots gain more functions and maneuvers each year. Altogether there were 12 different countries and 50 teams competing. The one-week competition emphasized the smooth movements and stability of the various designs.

Tamkang University had two teams, one with a wheel-shaped design and the other with a human-shaped design. The wheel-shaped design is the reigning champion in the medium-sized robotics category and won the competition for the 9th year in a row. The human-shaped robot also performed well in the robotic basketball competition. In the end for this year the robotics team won 3 gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal.

The counselor of the medium-sized robotic team, Professor Shih-an Li, stated, “This year we adopted new technical skills for the design through mathematical modeling, which allowed our robot to conserve energy and increase stability. However the new modifications caused the robot to lose many advantages that it had last year. Still the result for today’s competition was great. I am certain that next year we will be able to make even more breakthroughs.”

The medium-sized robotic team captain, Han-shao He, stated, “This year we had added a few modifications and were able to avoid malfunctions so the result was great. This time there was a lot of good competition and the crowd was packed. It was made us very nervous, but it was really exciting.”