Flying robots battle it out in Tokyo competition

By Olivier Fabre

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - A fish-shaped robot and propeller-driven helium balloons competed for the title of fastest, lightest flying robot in an event featuring engineering students from all over Asia.

Competitors were required to build remote-controlled flying machines of under 150 grams that had to pass through goal posts and film objects on the ground in a three-minute race.

Juho Lee, a 20-year-old South Korean of Korea's Advanced Institute of Science and Technology who had built a robot attached to balloons, won the first leg of the two-day event that started on Friday.

The 44 teams flew in from high schools and universities around Asia, including South Korea and Indonesia, but the majority of participants attend Japanese engineering colleges.

Sponsors of the competition, such as national carrier JAL and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, hope the event will help lay the foundations of a Japanese aeronautical industry.

"This competition is backed by the aeronautical industry, and as Japan is entering an era where we are trying to build our own commercial aeroplanes, I am sure they are looking to develop the aircraft engineers of the future," said Shinji Suzuki, professor at Tokyo University's department of engineering.

Mitsubishi Heavy, the leader in the Japanese aeronautical industry, is aiming to start small jetliner production in 2012.

Mitsubishi's jetliner will come in 72-seat and 92-seat versions and is part of a larger effort by Japan to develop aircraft that are more fuel-efficient and less noisy.