Internet based crossover robot remote control competition among Asian countries

We introduce an internet based crossover robot remote control competition project that is an international cooperative program based in Japan, China, Thailand, and Taiwan. This competition is an important component of a long-term higher education reform project aiming to develop a practice based innovative educational methodology jointly promoted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology of Japan and the University of Electro-Communications. The competition project includes two subjects: the competition itself and the communication and cooperation between students in two countries. The basic mode of the competition is a locally controlled robot and a remotely controlled robot cooperate with each other to complete some tasks. As a unique feature of the project, the student-student communication and cooperation are increased through a specially designed team organization structure that each team consists of two groups from different universities in different countries and the team members are required to cooperate through the internet to complete the competition. The competition has been successfully held four times and the results show it greatly benefits the students, and is expected to promote the development of the practice based educational methodology in the near future. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.