Report of 5th International Robotics Forum for High School Students (IRH2019)

December 27, 2019
Yuji Hosoda, Secretary of Executive committee of IRH 2019

Overview

Sponsored by: The Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ)

Cosponsored by: Japan Robot Association and Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Ltd.

Supported by: Ohmsha, Ltd., Yaskawa Electric Co., RT Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Co.

Date: Saturday December 21 and Sunday December 22, 2019

Venue: Tokyo International Exhibition Center and TFT building room 906

Executive committee of IRH 2019

Chair	Humitoshi Matuno, Vice-President of RSJ, Kyoto University
Secretary	Yuji Hosoda, Director and secretary-general of RSJ
Members	Tetsuo Noda, Osaka Institute of Technology Tetsuya Inamura, Director of RSJ, National Institute of Information Fumihide Tanaka, Director of RSJ, Tsukuba University Takayuki Nagai, Director of RSJ, Ohsaka University Shinya Kotosaka, Saitama University Satoshi Muramatsu, Toukai University Norihiro Kamamichi, Toyo Denki University Hideo Hayashi, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Ltd. Masayuki Yamamoto, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Ltd. Shigeaki Yanai, Japan Robot Association Tomonori Yano, Ohmsha, Ltd. Shiori Kaga, Ohmsha, Ltd. Toshinori Mizutani, secretary of RSJ
Award Committee：	Humitoshi Matuno, Vice-President of RSJ, Kyoto University Yuji Hosoda, Director and secretary-general of RSJ Minoru Asada, President of RSJ, Osaka University Tetsuo Noda, Osaka Institute of Technology Takayuki Nagai, Director of RSJ, Osaka University Shinya Kotosaka, Saitama University Norihiro Kamamichi, Toyo Denki University

Sponsored by	Cosponsored by

Supported by

Purpose

Robotics educational project of RSJ for high school students in the world

Learning by lectures of basic robotics

Study and report of the International Robot Exhibition 2019 (iREX 2019)

Awards for outstanding presentations

Information sharing of robotics educational trial on each school and experience of international communication

Encourage of future robotics researcher and engineer

Performance

”Robot high school” that was an educational program for Japanese high school students using real industrial robot as learning resource were hold in 2009 and 2011.These were corroboration with iREX 2009 and 2011.

1st International Robotics Forum for High School Students (IRH 2013) was held as one of globalization actions in 2013 when IROS 2013 was hold at Tokyo. Since IRH 2013, series of IRH have been held in every odd year that is the year of iREX. In 2019, IRH 2019 was held as collaboration event with WRS 2018 and JRW 2018.Performances of each IRH are as follows. So many participants and schools have joined in every time, and IRH is growing up as an international education event.

Table 1 Performances of each IRH

Year	Total		Japan	Over sea	Countries	Supporters
1st in 2013	Participants	109	91	18	China, Japan, Norway, USA	2
1st in 2013	Schools	19	16	3	China, Japan, Norway, USA	2
2nd in 2015	Participants	115	34	91	Brazil, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico (2 Schools), USA	5
2nd in 2015	Schools	13	7	6	Brazil, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico (2 Schools), USA	5
3rd in 2017	Participants	129	36	93	Brazil, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Mexico, Philippine, USA	4
3rd in 2017	Schools	13	6	7		4
4th in 2018	Participants	90	68	22	Japan, Mexico, Philippine	5
4th in 2018	Schools	9	7	2	Japan, Mexico, Philippine	5
5th in 2019	Participants	56	23	33	Japan, Mexico, Philippine	4
5th in 2019	Schools	6	4	2	Japan, Mexico, Philippine	4

Entrant school

Ritsumeikan Keisho Senior High School; Japan

Caritas Don Bosco School; Philippines

National Institute of Technology, Wakayama College; Japan

CETIS 26 Technical High School; Mexico

Hida-Kamioka High school; Japan

Clark Memorial International High School Akihabara IT Campus; Japan

Report

1.Schedule

Saturday December 21, 2019

Surveillance of iREX 2019

Sunday December 22, 2019

Presentation; Study report of the exhibition

Award ceremony

2.Study of the exhibition and themes of the study

All schools had done the study before IRH 2019 based on one theme that was selected by their self from following study themes. All students investigated real robots exhibited in iREX 2019 site in the afternoon of the Day One, and completed their study report that are presented at the Day Two open presentation with adding the result of the investigation.

-Field study at the exhibition site-

-Valuations of the study themes-

Theme 1: Advances in technology of industrial robots for manufacturing use
Please survey what is new and advanced with respect to conventional technology.

Theme 2: Changes in how industrial robots are used
Please survey what is new ways of using with respect to conventional methods of use. For example, recently, robots that handle food, robots that work in coexistence with people are attracting attention.

Theme 3: Advances in technology of non-industrial robots
Please survey what is new and advanced with respect to conventional technology.

Theme 4: New business and market using non-industrial robots
Currently, most robots on business are industrial robots used for manufacturing. On the other hand, most non-industrial robots are on developing stage, and aren’t on actual business and their market is small.Please survey the new robot business project proposed in this exhibition.If they aren’t already on the path of commercialization, please survey their future business concept and market.

The industrial robots referred in the theme 1 and 2 are robots used for automating the manufacturing industry and mean various manipulators, in-plant transport systems, chip mounters, etc.
The non-industrial robots referred in the theme 3 and 4 mean robots used in industries other than manufacturing industries, including many fields such as logistics, nursing care, cleaning, information service, home use, and so on. In survey, please arbitrarily select a field where robots are utilized.
In the theme 1 and 3, please arbitrarily select a view point for evaluating technology advancement. For example, there are the following.
- Construction of robot
- Function of robot
- Motion performance of robot
- Sensor technology
- Mechanical elements (actuator, reducer, mechanism, material, system)
- Control technology (including intelligent control etc.)
- Technology for using robots (safety technology and system integration technology)
- System design including robots and its working environment

3.Presentation

Presentation was held at the room 906 on Sunday December 22, 2019.Representatives of 6 schools presented their study. The presentation time of each school was 15 minutes, and all schools punctually finished in the limit time. Time of the field study at exhibition site and preparation time for the presentation was limited in short time, however every student made excellent presentation.

Presentation data and selected study theme of each school

School name	Selected study theme
Ritsumeikan Keisho Senior High School; Japan	Theme 4: New business and market using non-industrial robots
Caritas Don Bosco School; Philippines	Theme 3: Advances in technology of non-industrial robots
National Institute of Technology, Wakayama College; Japan	Theme 2: Changes in how industrial robots are used
CETIS 26 Technical High School; Mexico	Theme 1: Advances in technology of industrial robots for manufacturing use
Hida-Kamioka High school; Japan	Theme 2: Changes in how industrial robots are used
Clark Memorial International High School Akihabara IT Campus; Japan	Theme 4: New business and market using non-industrial robots

4. Awards ceremony：

a) Following four schools were selected as outstanding presenter in all 6 presentations of the "Study report" and RSJ presented them "IRH 2019 Best Study Report Award".


CETIS 26 Technical High School; Mexico	Hida-Kamioka High school

b) "Testimonial for Study Report of IRH 2019" was presented to all teachers with regarding their excellent leading of their students.

c) "Certificate of IRH 2019" was presented to all participants.

d) General comment
　We assessed the presentations to select award winners. However, all presentations were excellent and level difference between all presentations was negligible. All speakers were exactly punctual to the presentation limit time with well controlled speaking. Attitude, utterance and manners of presentation might be better than those of university students in many conferences. Though the preparing time of pre-study and investigation time in the exhibition site wasn’t so enough, all study contents were brushed up well and all presentations were well summarized and easy to understand. We believe that these excellent presentations depend on daily student’s effort and good leading of teachers. We would like to give honor to their great activity.

Announcement about next IRH

IRH 2021 will be held in December 2021at Tokyo!
In IRH 2021, participants will be able to find and study world advanced robots, because it will collaborate with International Robot Exhibition 2019 (iREX 2019).
We would be grateful, if you could confirm the detail of them with following sites and join to IRH 2021.
IRH 2021 official site: https://www.rsj.or.jp/event/irh/irh2021/ (We will open this site in end of 2020.)
iREX 2021 official site (Coming soon an English site) : https://biz.nikkan.co.jp/eve/irex/english/ (This site may be opened in end of 2020.)