The ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest is making its return to Hong Kong after 14 years this Sunday amid heightened interest sparked by technological leaps on the mainland and expectations that the world is on the cusp of a life-changing breakthrough with the emergence of humanoids and AI.

Organised by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the competition, also known as Robocon, brings together 16 university teams from 15 countries and regions this year.

Their robots will have to complete competitive tasks in three sections of a kung fu quest-themed contest – gathering and assembling parts to forge weapons, collecting kung fu scrolls and outwitting each other in a tic-tac-toe game using the scrolls.

Speaking on RTHK's Backchat programme, George Sze, who chairs an international panel of judges for this year's contest, said the event will go a long way towards helping students develop skills such as teamwork and problem-solving.

"All the teams basically have students from different departments... they need the different talent or different student of discipline in order to complete the robot design," he said.

"Also they have to comply with discipline and teamwork and so forth, they have to reach each other... to discuss the design and strategy and so forth."

Sze also pointed out that the contest will also be a great way to promote engineering and innovation in Hong Kong as the event offers a platform for students across Asia to share their designs and strategy.

"I think the demonstration of this game is to show the rest of the world that we are an international city... we welcome all talents to come to Hong Kong," he said.

Founded in 2002, the ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest is the largest university robotics competition in the region.

The contest will be broadcast live and aired across the Asia-Pacific and simulcast on RTHK TV 31.


Edited by Aaron Tam