This year’s (2024) UASACT International AI Robot and Drone Competition was held in Johor Bahru, Malaysia on December 7th and 8th, attracting global attention. With dazzling performances, the team from Taiwan won 52 awards, including 23 gold medals. The results fully demonstrated Taiwan’s technological strengths and educational achievements in the fields of AI, drones and robotics—and caught the attention of many. The drone football team from National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), led by teacher Hong-Bin Chang his team, including Yu-kai Liu, Yong-Hsing Yeh, Hao-yu Tseng, and Chen Bai-Kai Chen, won third place thanks to their superb flying skills.
Professor Hudson Hsu, who served as chief judge of the conference, is the director of the Program of Artificial Intelligence and Mechatronics at NPUST. Hsu explained that the large-scale event was jointly organized by the Taiwan Chapter of IEEE FTS UASACT and the Malaysian Autonomous Intelligence & Robotics Association (MYAIRA). With strong support from the Johor State Tourism Board, the event was a real feast for the international technology community. Malaysian royal family members and many government officials from the Johor local government were in attendance at the opening ceremony.
Taiwan’s qualification round was held in Taoyuan, Taiwan in July (2024), with more than 300 teams gathering to compete. Based on the results of the preliminaries, 96 outstanding teams were selected to represent Taiwan in Malaysia. Competition events include a variety of creative challenges including drone football, drone fishing and obstacle races. Drone football, in particular, has set off a new trend to combine technology and entertainment. The contestants from Pingtung, Kaohsiung, and Taichung performed particularly well, demonstrating Taiwan’s technological strengths and innovative energy on the international stage.
At NPUST, the Program of Artificial Intelligence and Mechatronics has long been engaged in technological agriculture, mechatronics integration, industry 4.0 skills cultivation, automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence. They have also done a lot of work to promote drone operation training and to expand drone applications in the field of agriculture. The NPUST drone football team participating in the competition combined their solid theoretical training with practical operations. Their brilliant achievements in the arena won them international recognition and helped contribute to Taiwan’s science and technology diplomacy.
The 2025 preliminary round of the competition will be held at the Taichung City Government Building later this year, and expectations are that an AI drone “Process Control” category will be added to inject new innovative elements into the technological competition. With experts from many different backgrounds getting involved in the activities, hopes are to see Taiwan’s educational and technological strengths continue to catch attention and shine on the international stage for once again.
