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Winners of NHK Student Robot Contest and quarterfinalist at Asia-Pacific Robot Contest

Shota Miyake
Third year student at School of Creative Science and Engineering

Kensuke Hanajiri
Third year student at School of Fundamental Science and Engineering

 Keisuke Shima
Third year student at School of Fundamental Science and Engineering

Shota Miyake dreamed of participating in the NHK Student Robot Contest ever since he was in elementary school. In his first year at Waseda he formed the ROBOSTEP club with classmates Kensuke Hanajiri and Keisuke Shima. The three of them were shocked when they won their first foray into the 2015 NHK Student Robot Contest.

This year’s contest pitted two teams’ robots against each other in rounds of badminton doubles.  Shota says, “The chassis of our trial robot was almost uncontrollable and the birdie went only 10 cm. We did not have a lot of technical knowledge and struggled as we felt our way through the development process.” Keisuke adds, “After completing the body of the robots, we worked until 9pm for five days practicing and thinking of ways to optimize the robot’s program and improve performance. Around six months of trial and error leading to the contest gave us a manually controlled, highly maneuverable robot that could run freely on the badminton court and accurately return the birdie.

ROBOSTEP earned the right to compete in the Asia-Pacific Robot Contest (ABU Robocon) held in August after it beat one powerhouse school after another at the NHK Student Robot Contest in June. At the ABU Robocon, ROBOSTEP advanced to the championship round but came up short against Vietnam’s Hung Yen University of Technology and Education. “I feel we still have lots of room for improvement in terms of technology and our technical skills. I want to pass on the skills we learn to younger students and compete in the ABU Robocon next year,” Keisuke says. ROBOSTEP’s journey of becoming world-class technicians has just begun.

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■(From left to right) Shota Miyake: Born in Yamanashi prefecture and graduated from Yamanashi Kenritsu Kofu Nishi High School. Kensuke Hanajiri: Born in Osaka prefecture and graduated from Osaka Seiko Gakuin High School. Keisuke Shima: Born in Chiba prefecture and graduated from Toho University affiliated high school. Under the supervision of ROBOSTEP president Professor Shigeki Sugano, the team built their robot at the Waseda Craft Workshop. Shota says, “I will continue researching robots under Professor Sugano’s supervision.” Kensuke adds, “I want to conduct research on robot hardware,” and Keisuke says, “I want to research semiconductors that can benefit society.”

Original article from Waseda Weekly