[ad_1]
This will be JAXA's first attempt to demonstrate the accuracy of handling a weightless robot from the ground. Sources have announced its intention to invite students from universities mainly from Asian countries to participate in the project. JAXA aims to use robots in the future to reduce the burden of astronauts.
The competition will use a 32-centimeter cube-shaped robot developed by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to assist astronauts on the ISS. Equipped with cameras, a microphone, a robot arm and other parts, the robot can be remotely controlled from the ground to take pictures.
JAXA will invite students from 11 countries from the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, the United States, Australia, Indonesia and South Korea, to participate in the contest. These national teams will remotely control the cubic robot by sending their own programs from Tsukuba Space Center of JAXA, based in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture.
Teams will compete for accuracy in handling the robot as it passes through a hoop while avoiding obstacles, or in taking photographs at designated locations within a given time frame.
NASA and other organizations are running robot competitions on the ISS primarily for lower secondary and high school students in the United States. The JAXA plans to hold an annual competition between 2020 and 2024 and plans to use Japanese robots.
Astronauts usually conduct scientific experiments and take pictures by themselves on the ISS. To reduce the burden of astronauts by effectively conducting experiments, countries are developing robots that can be used on the ISS. JAXA began testing operations of a spherical camera robot on the ISS as of 2017.
"It's important to let robots do what they can and let astronauts focus on a job that only humans can do," said JAXA vice president Koichi Wakata.
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0005752983
[ad_2]
Source link
