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Phantom Dancer, a robotics team from the Faculty of Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), stood out from a record number of 13 competing teams from 7 local tertiary institutions and became Champion of the Robocon 2019 Hong Kong Contest. The team will represent Hong Kong in the Asia-Pacific Robocon finale to be held in Mongolia next month.

“Great Urtuu”, inspired by a traditional Mongolian messenger system, is the theme of this year’s competition. The competition challenges the participants to build one manual and one automatic robotic prototype that have to execute a range of tasks over a miniature Mongolian landscape within three minutes, to demonstrate their technical and physical capabilities. These tasks include crossing different geographical conditions while carrying the Gerege as a testimony, throwing Shagai to earn 50 or more points, and raising the Gerege upon reaching the finish line. After multiple rounds of elimination, Phantom Dancer was crowned champion for the first time.

Phantom Dancer has gained substantial experience in this robotics competition over the years, and have received support from the advisory Engineering professors. The team leader, Billy Yip Chun Wa, first joined the CUHK robotics team during his undergraduate study in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering. To reach new heights, he passed on his experience and worked day and night with the team over the past year through endless testing and tuning of the robots. Four out of ten test robots were chosen to compete just a few days before the final competition. While most members are Engineering students, there are some majoring in Medicine, Actuarial Science and Physics. The non-engineering students have brought fresh elements and innovative ideas to the team, which are crucial to winning the competition. “Our two teams Phantom Dancer and Power Shuttle have over 30 core members with both stable performers and last minute fighters, but we all worked hard as a team to achieve our goal.” said Billy Yip.

Jeff Lam Chun Ting, a member of Phantom Dancer said, “My passion for robotic design grew when I first joined the workshop for high school students organised by the Innovation and Technology Student Club.” The club was jointly established by the Centre for Innovation and Technology (CINTEC) from the Faculty of Engineering, CUHK, and the Innovation and Technology Commission, HKSAR. “This was indeed a fresh start for me to be exposed to computer programming and robotics design tools”, says Jeff. “We hope for the best going on to our next goal, representing Hong Kong to compete in the Asia-Pacific Robocon finale in Mongolia next month.”