Activity Report of Open Application Course vol.27
Technical Training on Practical Robotics Production for Participation in the ABU Robot Contest
Report from National Institute of Technology(KOSEN), Miyakonojo College
With support from the Sakura Science Exchange Program for a 10-day period between December 6 to December 15, 2019, nine students and two supervising faculty members from the MUST (Mongolian University of Science and Technology) Kosen College of Technology, New Mongol College of Technology, and IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology) Mongol Kosen College of Technology were invited to participate in technical training in robotics production for the participation of the Asia-Pacific Robot contest (ABU Robocon). The students who were invited belong to the robocon department of their schools and work with the goal of gaining representation in the Mongolian domestic qualifying round in April, 2020 and entering the ABU Robocon competition in Fiji.
This time, the Mongolian Kosen students were separated into mechanical and electronic control systems for technical training. During the mechanical training, they were taught how to make parts with good accuracy and were given many valuable tips to do so. Robotic production for a robocon must be completed approximately six months after the assignment is announced. In order to assemble parts and check their operation in such a short period of time, it is very effective to make precision parts, which greatly affects the robot's completeness. Even by hand using hand tools, after a thorough check of the positioning, the students came to understand that the assembly of the parts would be easier if they fabricated the parts with great concentration.
In the electronic control system, motor drivers were fabricated and motor rotation control was implemented through programming. It also seemed to lead to the students' confidence that they could combine electronic components to make their own high-capacity motor drivers, not ready-made ones, but with a deeper understanding of how they worked.
The students of this school's robocon department also participated as auxiliaries to technical training, thereby deepening the interaction between Japanese and Mongolian students. Each Mongolia Kosen has Japanese classes as a mandatory subject. The students who came to Japan for the first time hesitated to use the Japanese that they had learned, but they soon became accustomed to the environment each day and then were very actively using the language. I think that by using their knowledge the learned in class to carry on conversations with the Japanese students gave them a greater eagerness to learn Japanese in the future.
During the period of technical training, three companies in the prefecture cooperated in allowing them to tour the factory. Despite being a frontier land called Miyazaki, the Mongolian Kosen students were very surprised by the presence of state-of-the-art factories and global factories supplying parts all around the world. Many students studying in Mongolia Kosens want to work or study in Japan, and return to Mongolia after mastering skills, so that they can contribute to the development of their home country. After the factory tour, the students were beginning to think about what companies to work for in order to acquire a wide range of skills.
After successfully completing the training, the motor was mounted on a base made in the mechanical system and the motor drivers made in the electronic control system could be used to check the operation. Although it was basic content, we believe the students obtained the essential technical training to produce a robot. We want the students who participated to practice the techniques learned in the Robocon Department to create a robot with a high degree of completeness and work confidently toward the representation decision in April.
Miyakonojo College students and faculty
We want the many Mongolian Kosen students to feel close to Japan through the Sakura Science Exchange Program in the future. We hope that those students will have a deep relationship with Japan in the future to master Japanese technology and dedicate themselves to the development of Mongolia.