Filipino students command robot in space, wins 3rd place at international programming contest

Team Inflection Point of the Batangas State University (BatStateU) has won again in the international Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC), securing 3^rd place in the final round, the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) has announced. Team Inflection Point commanded NASA’s Astrobee robot aboard the Japanese “Kibo” module of the International Space Station (ISS) with their own program, competing against teams all over the world in image recognition accuracy and mission speed.

The team is composed of third-year aerospace engineering students from BatStateU, namely: Howell Dela Cruz, John Royeth Samson, Ahron Martinez, Benedict Lontok, Andrew Cabile, and Amer Panganiban. Their 3^rd place win marks another achievement for the Philippines, following its successful debut into the Kibo-RPC last 2024 where the same team secured 2^nd place and became the first-ever Philippine team to join and win at the Kibo-RPC. 

A total of 738 teams from 37 countries/regions—including 25 countries from the international slot of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)—joined this year’s Kibo-RPC. Team Inflection Point scored the highest in the preliminary round amongst the 27 Philippine team applicants and, thus, qualified to represent the country once more in the in-orbit finals.

Watch Inflection Point’s program run here: https://youtu.be/1T3ktCcb28I 

Organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Kibo-RPC is open to student teams across the Asia-Pacific Region. Robots are being developed to support astronauts and potentially assist in case of emergencies in space. The Kibo-RPC aims to train the next generation in programming robots in space for precise and swift operation, testing their teamwork and skill in predicting motion under microgravity conditions.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Christopher Williams executed programs by the student-teams using Astrobee during the 6th Kibo-RPC Final Round held in orbit aboard the ISS on 28 February 2026, evaluating the task completion rate, accuracy, and speed.

Team Inflection Point successfully completed 4 out of 5 tasks during the live test run, earning a total score of 216.8 out of 300 points. Their performance in the “Oasis Zone” contributed significantly to their result, as the new feature introduced this year offered bonus points while challenging teams to balance speed and strategy since certain routes carried additional time penalties. Their score only has a 1.6-point difference from the second-place winner, team Automen of Malaysia (218.4), while Team iTron of Taiwan won first-place (269.9).

Watch the full recording of the finals here: https://youtu.be/fVhdATbsMJk    

About the Kibo-ABC program

The Kibo-ABC program or Asian Beneficial Collaboration through Kibo Utilization was established by the Space Frontier Working Group (SFWG) of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) to promote the utilization and share the value of the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo,” enhance the capacity of participating organizations, and foster collaborative projects between Japan and Kibo-ABC member countries. 

The Kibo-RPC, through its member organizations, is one of the activities under the Kibo-ABC program that aims to expand the use of the Kibo module on ISS and develop the youth’s understanding of space environments.  

As the central government agency addressing all national issues and activities related to SSTAs and as a member of the Kibo-ABC program, PhilSA spearheaded the local call for the 6th Kibo-RPC applications. 27 team applications were received nationwide from 12 March to 26 May 2025, and 7 teams successfully submitted their program entries. 

The 7^th Kibo-RPC is scheduled to begin in July 2026. For more information on the challenge, visit: https://jaxa.krpc.jp