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HKUST Won Two Awards in MATE International ROV Competition 2016

HKUSTROBOTICS
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The HKUST Robotics Team Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) team continued to shine in underwater robotics competitions by becoming yet another year of explorer class champion in the Hong Kong/Asia Regional Competition IET/MATE Underwater Robotics Challenge, as well as receiving 3rd runner up overall in the MATE ROV International Competition, Most Valuable Person (MVP) in product presentation (received by the team's CEO, Albert Tanoto) and the Guts and Glory Award.

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With cultural diversity being one of the team’s special characteristics, this year’s ROV team consists of students from all around Asia, specializing in different aspects of engineering, such as Mechanical, Electronic and Computer Science and Engineering. This year, with the theme of the competition being outer space exploration and deep-water investigation, each team was requested to build a cost-effective underwater robot to carry out all the missions. After 6 months of unstopped preparation and practice, the HKUST ROV team has built the most light-weight yet efficient underwater robot.

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The path from design to manufacture wasn’t easy. Throughout the period, the team has encountered a lot of challenges, with one of them being the transportation of the ROV. To seize every opportunity for testing and improvement, two nights in a week, the ROV team had to transport dozens of kilograms of the ROV and equipment from the robotics lab to the school’s indoor swimming pool. At those moments, all team members came together and moved the heavy loads down the hallway and stairs. After countless nights of water tests, the team’s atmosphere had certainly been boosted up.

 

But technical problems were another contest for the team. Because of the whole new mechanical design of the ROV, all aspects, including hardware components and software implementation would also have to be redesigned. Though it was always fun to learn, problems that were difficult to solve often emerged and cost time and effort. Nevertheless, the team managed to overcome the hardship, achieving their goals and competed in both competitions with the help and guidance from senior members, mentors and each other.

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As soon as the end of this year’s international competition, the ROV team members have already started to plan for the coming year. All engineering students from different countries have come together, to share, learn, and aim for an even higher goal.

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HKUSTROBOTICS
Engineering students are encouraged to take part in a variety of external competitions such as the Robocon Hong Kong Contest outside their regular curriculum, where they can apply what they learn, develop skills in various aspects, and widen their global perspectives. One such popular external competition is the Robocon Hong Kong Contest since 2004. To benefit more students from the new learning experience, the Robocon Team, now called the HKUST Robotics Team, has been expanded in 2010. The Robotics Team members will represent the HKUST to participate in major events namely the Robocon Contest, the Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) competition, the Smart Car Competition and the NAO RoboCup. Besides robotics competition, the Robotics team would like to encourage students to explore in other areas. We have also taken part in various of presentation competitions and entrepreneur competitions in order to encourage students to become excellent leaders.
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