HKUST Robotics Team
HKUST Robotics Team is the robotics team of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. It consists of 3 sub-teams that compete in the ABU Robocon contest, MATE ROV Competition and the Freescale Cup Intelligent Car Racing.[1]
HKUST Robotics Team is affiliated to the Center for Global Community Engagement and their Director is Prof. Tim Woo.[2] The HKUST Robotics Team has students the various schools of HKUST, namely the School of Engineering, School of Science and School of Business and Management.[2]
History
The HKUST Robotics Team was founded with intentions to encourage Engineering students to take part in a variety of external robotics competitions, outside their regular curriculum in the early years of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. One such popular external competition is the Robocon Hong Kong Competition, which the team has participated in since 2004.
To benefit more students from the new learning experience, the HKUST Robotics Team expanded in 2010, representing HKUST in multiple competitions, namely the ABU Robocon Competition, the MATE Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) competition and the Freescale Cup Intelligent Car Racing Competition.
Besides robotics competition, HKUST Robotics Team participated in numerous presentation competitions and entrepreneurship competitions.[3]
In 2013, HKUST Robotics Team has become involved in different community projects and services, such as guiding visually imparied students to build their own underwater robots, organizing advanced underwater robot training's and Arduino introduction workshops to secondary school students.
Subteams
Robocon
ABU Robocon is an Asia-Pacific based university level robotics competition, founded in 2002 by Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. The contest aims to create friendship among young people with similar interests who will lead their countries in the 21st century, as well as help advance engineering and broadcasting technologies in the region. The event is broadcast in many countries through ABU member broadcasters. In order to become the representative of the country, teams must participate in regional competition and get the championship every year. In Hong Kong, the regional competition is Robocon Hong Kong.
Each year the competition has different topics, but generally speaking two or more robots must be used to complete the tasks. One of the robots would be manual control while the others are automatic. The best robots usually weight more than 10 kg and span in one square meter area. To build the robots, contestants, who are restricted to be undergraduate students, must possess rich knowledge in programming, mechanical design and electronic circuit design.
MATE ROV
The HKUST Robotics Teams participate in the MATE ROV Competition for the first time in 2011.[4] That year's team was co-supervised by Prof. Zexiang Li and Prof. Tim Woo of the ECE Department[5]
The MATE ROV Competition challenges K-12, community college, and university students from all over the world to design and build ROVs to tackle missions modeled after real-life scenarios from the marine environment. The competition’s class structure of beginner, intermediate, and advanced complements the education pipeline by providing students with the opportunity to build upon their skills – and the application of those skills – as they engineer increasingly more complex ROVs for increasingly more complex mission tasks.
The MATE competition requires students to think of themselves as “entrepreneurs” and transform their teams into companies that manufacture, market, and sell products. In addition to engineering their ROVs, the students are required to prepare technical reports, poster displays, and engineering presentations that are delivered to working professionals who serve as competition judges.[6]
Intelligent Car Racing
“Freescale Cup” Intelligent Car Racing has been organized by the semiconductor company, Freescale, for nine years. Over the years, it became a popular robotics event in mainland China and aroused attention from students in related disciplines. It aimed to encourage students to apply circuit design, mechanics knowledge, embedded software programming, and control theories in smart model car racing. The fastest car to complete the track without derailing wins the competition. According to the sensors used, teams were divided into three categories: Optical Group, Electro-magnetic Group and Camera Balance Group. Teams from the Optical Group were required to identify the track by processing analog data obtained from linear CCD's, while those from the Camera Balance Group relied on image processing through a camera with an extra requirement – standing up and racing with only two wheels. Finally, teams from the Electro-Magnetic Group used wireless sensors to detect the location of a signal wire located underneath the racetrack.[7]
Awards[8]
Robocon
| Year | Award Name | Competition | Event Location | Recipient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1st runners-up | The Asia-Pacific Robot Contest 2015 | Indonesia | HKUST |
| Champion | Robocon 2015 Hong Kong Contest | Hong Kong | Fiery Dragon | |
| 2014 | Best Engineering Award | Robocon 2014 Hong Kong Contest [9] | Hong Kong | War Dragon |
| 1st runner-up | Fiery Dragon | |||
| Best Engineering Award | Fiery Dragon | |||
| Best Artistic Design Award | War Dragon | |||
| 2013 | Best Engineering Award | The Asia-Pacific Robot Contest 2013 [10] | Vietnam | HKUST |
| Champion | Robocon Hong Kong Contest 2013 [11] | Hong Kong | War Dragon | |
| 1st runner-up | Fiery Dragon | |||
| Best Engineering Award | Fiery Dragon | |||
| Best Artistic Design Award | Fiery Dragon | |||
| 2012 | Best Idea Award | The Asia-Pacific Robot Contest 2012 [12] | Hong Kong | HKUST |
| Champion | Robocon Hong Kong Contest 2012 [13] | Hong Kong | War Dragon | |
| 1st runner-up | Fiery Dragon | |||
| Best Engineering Award | War Dragon | |||
| Best Artistic Design Award | War Dragon | |||
| 2011 | Best Idea Award | The Asia-Pacific Robot Contest 2011 [14] | Thailand | HKUST |
| Mabuchi Motor Award | HKUST | |||
| Champion | Robocon Hong Kong Contest 2011 [15] | Hong Kong | Fiery Dragon | |
ROV Underwater Robot
| Year | Award Name | Competition | Event Location | Recipient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2nd Runner Up - Explorer Class | 14th Annual MATE International Underwater Robotics Competition | St. John's, NL, Canada | Team Epoxsea[16] |
| Harry Bohm and Jill Zande “Sharkpedo” award | 14th Annual MATE International Underwater Robotics Competition | St. John's, NL, Canada | Team Epoxsea[16] | |
| Marty Klein MATE
MARINER Award |
14th Annual MATE International Underwater Robotics Competition | St. John's, NL, Canada | Rayan Armani[16] | |
| Sales Presentation "MVP" Award - Explorer Class | 14th Annual MATE International Underwater Robotics Competition | St. John's, NL, Canada | Johannes Jaeger[16] | |
| 1st Place – Explorer Class | The IET/MATE Hong Kong Underwater Robot Challenge 2015 | Hong Kong | Team Epoxsea | |
| 2014 | 7th Place – Explorer Class | 13th Annual MATE International Underwater Robotics Competition | Alpena, MI, USA | Team Epoxsea |
| Engineering Evaluation MVP Award – Explorer Class | 13th Annual MATE International Underwater Robotics Competition | Alpena, MI, USA | Dhesant Nakka[17] | |
| 1st Place – Explorer Class | The IET/MATE Hong Kong Underwater Robot Challenge 2014 | Hong Kong | Team Epoxsea | |
| 2013 | 4th Place – Explorer Class[18] | 12th Annual MATE International Underwater Robotics Competition | Federal Way, WA, USA | Team Joker |
| Best Technical Report & Poster Display | 12th Annual MATE International Underwater Robotics Competition | Federal Way, WA, USA | Team Joker | |
| 1st Place – Explorer Class | The IET/MATE Hong Kong Underwater Robot Challenge 2013 | Hong Kong | Team Joker | |
| Best Innovation & Research Award | Hong Kong Information Communication & Technology Award | Hong Kong | ||
| Best Social Responsibility Award | Hong Kong Information Communication & Technology Award | Hong Kong | ||
| Second Class Award | 13th Challenge Cup | Hong Kong | ||
| Champion – Undergraduate Section | IET Young Professionals Exhibition & Competition | Hong Kong | ||
| Champion - Hong Kong Session | IET Young Professionals Exhibition & Competition | Hong Kong | ||
| 2012 | Best Innovation & Research Award | Hong Kong Information Communication & Technology Award | Hong Kong | |
| 2nd Runner Up | JEC Outstanding Engineering Project Award | Hong Kong | ||
| 1st Runner Up | HSBC YDC Young Entrepreneur Challenge | Hong Kong | ||
| Hong Kong Technopreneur | HSBC YDC Young Entrepreneur Challenge | Hong Kong | ||
| Lenovo Innovation Award | 1st Asia Innovation Forum Young Entrepreneur Award | Hong Kong | ||
| Gold Award | China Challenge Cup Entrepreneur Competition | |||
Notable Alumni
- Frank Wang - Founder and CEO of DJI Innovations[19][20]
- Shizheng Tao - Founder and CEO of ePropulsion Technology Limited[21]
References
- ↑ "GCE - Local and International Competitions", HKUST School of Engineering
- 1 2 Andrea Zavadszky, "HKUST programme aims to equip students with real-world skills", South China Morning Post, 22 August 2014
- ↑ "HKUST Robotics Team Introduction". facebook.com. HKUST Robotics Team.
- ↑ "HKUST Students Win Design Elegance Award in international ROV Competition at NASA". HKUST Press. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ↑ "Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) Competition 2011". Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ↑ "MATE- Underwater Robotics COmpetitions". MATE- Underwater Robotics COmpetitions.
- ↑ "9th National Undergraduate Student "Freescale Cup" Intelligent Car Competition". 9th National Undergraduate Student “Freescale Cup” Intelligent Car Competition.
- ↑ "Student & Researcher Awards, Honors & Achievements (International & National)". HKUST School of Engineering.
- ↑ "Robocon 2014 Hong Kong Contest". Cyberport.
- ↑ "HKUST Robocon Team Won Best Engineering Award in ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest 2013". HKUST SENG.
- ↑ "Robocon Hong Kong Contest 2013". Cyberport.
- ↑ "2012 Robocon Hong Kong Contest and ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest". HKUST SENG.
- ↑ "Robocon Hong Kong Contest 2013". Cyberport.
- ↑ "The HKUST Robocon Team represented Hong Kong and had Excellent Results in the ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest". HKUST ECE.
- ↑ "Robocon Hong Kong Contest 2013". Cyberport.
- 1 2 3 4 "2015 MATE International ROV Competition Award Winners" (PDF). Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center.
- ↑ "2014 MATE International ROV Competition Award Winners" (PDF). marinetech.org. Marine Advanced Technology Education Center.
- ↑ "HKUST ROV Team shone in the Asia Regional IET/MATE Underwater Robot Challenge and the International MATE ROV Competition 2013". Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering.
- ↑ Frank Wang - Alumni Faces
- ↑ Unveiling the Technologies behind Drones & Flying Cameras, HKUST School of Engineering, 02 April 2014
- ↑ "2011 Robocon Hong Kong Contest and ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest". Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering.