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　　The Bio-Industrial Mechatronics Cup of Field Robot Contest 2020, in its 13th edition, took place on the Lantan campus of National Chiayi University on Nov. 26th. This year, it was organized by the NCYU Department of Biomechatronic Engineering. In the college division, the “Stand Out” team, consisting of Zeng Yu-Ru, Zhang Jia-Rong, Liao Yuan-Xuan and Huang Pin-Zhen from the Department of Biomechatronic Engineering, NCYU, came in first place with a perfect score and a prize money of NT$30,000. The “Gui-Ling Three Heroes” team, consisting of Xu Tong-Ming, Zheng Yu-Cheng and Zhu Jin-Yi from National Ilan University, won the second place and a prize money of NT$20,000. The “It Will Move Tomorrow” team, consisting of Chen Jing-Kuan, Wu Hong-Jie, Chen Jia-Hong and Xie Cheng-Jie from National Chung Hsing University, placed third with a prize money of NT$10,000. In the category of vocational schools, the first prize went to the “Ksvs Wins at First Rock” team from National Kangshan Agricultural & Industrial Vocational Senior High School, the second to the “Magic out of the Blue” team from National MinShyong Vocational High School of Agriculture & Industry, and the third to both the “Pillar of Biomechatronic Engineering” team from National Huwei Agricultural & Industrial Vocational Senior High School, and “Calpis Tastes Great” from National MinShyong Vocational High School of Agriculture & Industry.

　　The competition this year was joined by twenty student teams from universities and colleges including National Taiwan University, National Ilan University, National Chung Hsing University, National Chiayi University and PingTung University of Science & Technology (NPUST). A total of ten student teams from The Affiliated Taichung Senior Agricultural Vocational High School of National Chung Hsing University, National Huwei Agricultural & Industrial Vocational Senior High School, National MinShyong Vocational High School of Agriculture & Industry and National Kangshan Agricultural & Industrial Vocational Senior High School competed in the category of vocational schools. The event unveiled with opening remarks by NCYU President Chyung Ay, who offered encouraging words to the contending students, and urged the student teams to demonstrate teamwork, and have the courage to show themselves and their capabilities to innovate and develop.

　　As far as the field robot contest is concerned, it is relatively more challenging for the field robot to perform in a changing outdoor environment, as opposed to that in a controllable indoor environment. Field robots characterized by electromechanical system control and mechanism design are more technically difficult. The competition site was divided into seven areas. The field robots needed to travel autonomously in the field, enter the fenced clay block area and the gravel block area, pass the lawn road, carry out the mission of intelligent spraying and watering to induce pineapple flowering, pass the lawn road, and accurately clamp the potted plants and intelligently place them before returning to the end point. Scores were assessed based on the degree of difficulty of the mission completed. At the end of the competition, the organizer arranged for each participating team to share their design principles and ideas. By encouraging the participating students to observe and learn from each other, it would help them broaden their knowledge, thus achieving better results in the next contest.

　　According to Zeng Yu-Ru, one of the members of this year’s first-prize-winning women’s team, it is a stereotype to assume the domain of mechanical engineering is dominated by males. They, therefore, want to prove themselves and also the fact that girls can do better than boys if they truly work hard. All students of the Department of Biomechatronic Engineering, they have been interested in joining the competititon since the day they heard about it, and have been preparing for the competition since last summer. All the team members have been using their spare time, mostly through staying up late, to practice and discuss throughout the two weeks before the competition. When encountering unsolvable problems, which occurred quite often, they were fortunate to have seniors and teachers of the department who were enthusiastic to provide guidance and advice. They were truly grateful for their heartfelt support.

　　Huang Wen-Lu, advisor from NCYU, mentioned that three of the robot teams were formed by the the Automation Research Center, College of Science and Engineering, NCYU. Coming from the Department of Biomechatronic Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering, and Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, the participating students have been sparing no time and working around the clock to conduct planning, mechanism design, sensor system installation, programming, and image recognition testing of the field robots. It is especially praiseworthy that the “Stand Out” team, who won the first prize this year, is made up of four female students, which marks a new record in the domain of science and engineering.