Two Vietnamese teams will compete at the annual Asia Pacific Robot Contest (Robocon) 2018, being held at Ninh Binh Sports Centre in Ninh Binh city on August 26.

The arena at ABU Robocon 2018. Each game will last for three minutes. (Photo: aburobocon2018.vtv.vn)

At a press briefing to announce the launch of this year’s event on August 16, Vietnam Television (VTV) — the organiser — revealed that the competition has attracted the participation of 19 teams from 18 countries and territories throughout Asia Pacific.

The host delegation includes two teams with 12 members all from Lac Hong University in the southern province of Dong Nai. This is the 17th consecutive year the Robocon has been organised and it is the third to be hosted by Vietnam.

The ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest (ABU Robocon) is an Asian Oceanian College robot competition, founded in 2002 by Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU). The event has been held and broadcast in many ABU member countries. VTV has participated in and organised the contest since 2002.

This year’s theme is “Nem Con” (con throwing) - a popular folk game of ethnic minority groups in Vietnam's northwestern region. During the game, con - a colourful fabric ball - will be thrown at a bamboo ring fixed to the top of a bamboo pole from 15m-20m high.

For the ABU Robocon 2018 contest, the manual robot will deliver the con to the automatic robot to throw towards the three rings (two normal and one golden ring) on the field. The team who throws the yellow con through the golden ring that landed on a ground called the “golden cup” in the field will win the game immediately.

The 19 teams are divided into seven groups (five of three-teams and two of two-teams). Seven group leaders and a group runner-up with the best performance will earn a place in the quarter-finals.

The opening ceremony and the group stage matches will be broadcast live from 12pm to 3pm on VTV Channel 2 (VTV2) on August 26. The final match and awards ceremony will be televised live from 3:30pm to 5:40 pm on VTV1 and VTV2 channels.

Nhan Dan