Students to take their robot designs abroad

The International Design Contest or IDC RoBoCon 2009 scheduled to be held in Japan in August will provide students here with the opportunity to compete, develop their robotdesign skills and work together with other students from seven hightech countries -  Japan, the US, Britain, France, Germany, South Korea and Brazil.

Sani Klinsanit from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Lat Krabang (KMITL), Sirawut Thatiyakul from Chulalongkorn University, Pongsakorn Hanwaree from Suranaree University of Technology, Anirut Chitanantaporn from ThaiNichi Institute of Technology (TNI) and Pornthep Chinsri from King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok will represent the country after winning the Robot Design Contest or RDC 2009 on Saturday. Their "brown team" was among 48 students from 10 leading academic institutions that took part in the competition.

Pongsakorn said team harmony was their key to success. They had planned well for the contest and had clearcut duties.

'Very good experience'

 "This is a very good experience as friends from dif¬ferent institutions worked together and coped with problems. It is a triumph we are really proud of," Pongsakorn added.

The national contest this year came up with the green concept of creating treeplanting robots.

RDC 2009 contestants were offered a twoweek training and then another two weeks for designing and creating their robots using limited cash and materials, said the caretaker of the contest, Assist Prof Witaya Wannasuphoprasit, who is vice president of Automotive Design and Manufacturing Engineering at CU's Faculty of Engineering.

Witaya added that apart from developing robotdesign skills and engineering knowledge, students were also educated about teamwork.

"They will also learn to work with foreign students as their team members when they compete in the world contest. Letting them work with new friends is the same as working in the real world," Witaya said. 

Thailand has taken part in the international contest since 2007. To date, three out of total 16 Thai representatives have won the contest. Of those winners, two were female students and a male student from CU.

National Metal and Materials Technology Center director Werasak Udomkichdecha, as another sponsor, said the contest stage helped students to bring out their basic scientific knowledge and apply it to create and move robots.

"We've encouraged more students to pay attention to robot design because robots will have more important roles in the next 10 to 20 years. We want to see more Thais able to invent them," Werasak said.

Nattha Wajirapornpongsa, a competitor from KMITL's Information Engineering field, said that by joining the contest she had more chances to put her robotic knowledge into practice.

"This is my first step in learning hardware assembly. I hope to use it with my knowledge of software to make my dream of inventing robots for disabled people come true," said Sorrachai Yingcharoenthawornchai, a contestant from CU's Computer Engineering field.