On February 28, 2026, the on-orbit final round of the 6th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC), along with a related side event, was held. Following these events, a workshop was conducted in a hybrid format for all participating students, including non-finalists, enabling both online and in-person participation. In addition, a social gathering and a facility…
On February 28, 2026, the On-Orbit Final Round of the 6th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC) was held. A total of 13 teams (Table 1), which had advanced through national and regional preliminary rounds, took part in the competition. Using programs developed by the students, the teams controlled Astrobee, a drone robot operated by NASA…
NASA decided to transfer Astrobee operations to a private contractor in May 2025. In September 2025, Arkisys Inc. was selected by NASA as the commercial sustainer, and JAXA subsequently began technical coordination for the Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC). Following both ground testing and a technical rehearsal aboard the International Space Station (ISS), preparations for…
JAXA hosted the 6th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC), which began accepting applications on February 17, 2025. This year’s competition draws participation from a total of 13 countries, regions, and organizations, including the 11 Kibo-ABC member countries/regions that regularly participate in the Kibo-RPC, as well as the United States of America and the United Nations…
The 6th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC) hosted by JAXA has closed its call for teams. A total of 13 countries, regions, and organizations from Kibo-ABC member countries and region, the United States, and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) participate in this year’s competition, with a record number of 738 teams…
We are pleased to announce that JAXA will hold the 6th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC) in 2025 and has started accepting applications for participating teams. Kibo-RPC is a collaborative activity between JAXA and NASA under the Japan-US Open Platform Partnership Program (JP-US OP3) framework. This activity is to expand the use of Kibo in…
On November 9th, 2024, the final round event of the 5th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC) was held. As part of this event, a workshop for participants in the competition was held for participants combining online and in-person after the event. In addition, there was also a facility tour and a closing social gathering for…
On November 9th, 2024, the final round event for the 5th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC) was held. The 13 teams that won through their countries preliminary round competed to see who could operate NASA’s Astrobee drone robot inside the ISS using the programs they had created, aimed to achieve the highest accuracy in image…
On September 20, 2024, the Japanese Experiment Module ‘Kibo’ on the International Space Station (ISS) conducted the APK (Android Application Package) Final Run of the 5th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC), organized by JAXA. In addition to NASA’s Astrobee, which was used in the competition, the JEM Inboard Portable Video Camera System Demonstration 2 (Int-Ball2),…
