Team hopes to keep title for a third year
By Manop Thip-osod
Plasma-RX, the rescue robot invented by Chulalongkorn University students, reached the final of the World Rescue Robot Competition in Suzhou, China yesterday, boosting Thailand's hope of retaining the world title for the third time in a row.
The robot, sponsored by the Siam Cement Group, was among the last four yesterday.
The championship decider takes place today.
Team adviser Manop Wongsaisuwan said he was satisfied with the robot's performance after it emerged first in both the preliminary round on Friday and the semi-final round yesterday.
"If the team continues at this rate in the final round, it is highly likely we'll return home as world champions again." Yesterday, it collected 459 points more than its nearest rival in reaching the final. The scores were from the number of victims trapped under collapsed buildings each robot was asked to find in the contest.
Its three challengers in the final are the joint Resquake-Resko team from Iran and Germany, the MRL squad from Iran, and Japan's NuTech-R.
President of the Thai Robotics Society Jackrit Suthakorn praised the students of the engineering faculty for their skill in controlling the robot during the campaign, which started on Wednesday with 18 robots from nine countries. The students are Kamol Juengsathiensap, Chanin Chanma, Yutthana Suthasupha and Naowarat Termthanasombat.
Plasma-RX hopes to repeat the success of Independent, the rescue robot built by King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok's Prachin Buri campus, which topped the 2006 and 2007 competitions in Germany and the United States.
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