The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) reported that a team from Batangas State University (BatStateU) secured second place in the 5th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC).
During this challenge, each team developed code to program NASA’s free-flying robot, Astrobee, to navigate to designated locations within the Japanese “Kibo” module aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Out of 611 teams from Kibo-ABC member countries that submitted entries, 13 teams advanced to the final round of the 5th Kibo-RPC.
Team Inflection Point from BatStateU is now the first-ever Philippine team to participate and win in this competition.
The final round took place on November 9, 2024, at the ISS, where NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps individually ran the 13 programs on Astrobee.
The programs were evaluated based on how effectively they achieved the challenge objectives.
Inflection Point’s program scored 250.88 out of a possible 270 points, securing them second place. Their score was only three points shy of the first-place winner, Team Astronut from Thailand, which scored 253.09 points.
Inflection Point and Astronut were the only teams whose programs successfully completed all objectives set by JAXA.
Team Inflection Point comprised of second-year aerospace engineering students from BatStateU: John Royeth Samson, Andrew Cabile, Benedict Lontok, Ahron Martinez, Amer Panganiban, and Howell Dela Cruz.
As the central government agency responsible for addressing national issues and activities related to space science and technology applications (SSTAs), PhilSA led the local call for applications for the 5th Kibo-RPC.
A total of 29 team applications were received nationwide between April 2 and May 27, 2024, with seven teams successfully submitting their program entries.
Kibo-RPC is an international competition organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
It is one of several activities under the Kibo-ABC program that seeks to expand the use of the Kibo module on the ISS while developing youth understanding of space environments.
