KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — This year’s myMaker Robotics Challenge 2018 once again paved the way for the younger generation to be part of robotics technology as over 100 groups from secondary schools, colleges and universities came together over the weekend to celebrate their passion for the robotics industry.

The two-day challenge was jointly organised by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), myMaker and Universiti Malaya’s student-based makers team, VMaker.

The competition, held at MCMC’s headquarters in Cyberjaya, saw participants all the way from Sintok in Kedah and Pasir Gudang in Johor take part in seven categories.

The catogories were Internet of Things (IoT) Robotics Challenge, Territory Defence Challenge (Open Category), Humanoid Robot Challenge (Open Category), Autonomous Sumo Robot 3kg (Open Category), RC Sumo Robot 5kg (Senior Category), RC Sumo Robot 5kg (Open Category) and RC Sumo Robot 3kg (Junior Category).

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This year, the challenge was amped up with the incorporation of Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology for the mobile robots.

By using the wireless technology, the mobile robots were tasked with placing all the ‘resources’ into a goal area as well as attempting to construct a ‘city’.

The organisers also built a special boxing arena for the Humanoid Robotics category which made the event a fan favourite. It managed to draw the biggest crowd of all.

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A total of 121 teams from 41 schools, institutes and universities participated in all seven categories and were also given the opportunity to explore the Experiential Learning Space and myMaker IoT Lab throughout the competition.

They were given a guided tour on IoT, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Radio-frequency identification (RFID), drones, 3-Dimensional (3D) printing and IoT-embedded technology, among many other digital lifestyle applications.

MCMC Technology and Society Division senior director Aisharuddin Nuruddin said he hoped the IoT robotics platform would be more accessible to students and communities in the future, and that the competition would highlight the importance of robotics technology to youth.