The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) is proud to announce that team Inflection Point of the Batangas State University (BatStateU) will once again represent the Philippines in the Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC). This marks the second consecutive year the team has earned this placement, following their impressive second-place finish in the 5th Kibo-RPC conducted in 2024.
Organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Kibo-RPC is an international programming challenge for the youth to gain scientific, technical, and mathematical skills for manipulating space robots. Student teams will code a program for Astrobee, NASA’s free-floating robot, within the Japanese “Kibo” module aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Team Inflection Point is composed of six (6) incoming third-year aerospace engineering students: Andrew Cabile, Howell Dela Cruz, Benedict Lontok, Ahron Martinez, Amer Panganiban, and John Royeth Samson. During the preliminary round, their program achieved an impressive score of 294.26 out of 300 points in simulations conducted by PhilSA using JAXA’s official testing platform.
Following this preliminary round, the winning team from each participating country and region will advance to the in-orbit final round, which will take place aboard the ISS later this year.
PhilSA spearheaded the local call for entries for this year’s Kibo-RPC Philippines. Twenty-seven (27) team applications were received nationwide from 12 March to 26 May 2025 and seven (7) teams successfully submitted their APK source codes. These include teams from Bataan Peninsula State University, Batangas State University, De La Salle University – Dasmariñas, De La Salle University – Manila, Indiana Aerospace University, Pasig Catholic College, and WCC Aeronautical and Technological College.
The simulation was conducted for all seven (7) teams, and the JAXA simulator was able to run 10 simulations per program/team, from which individual and average scores were collected. Team Inflection Point, having generated the highest average score, qualified to represent the Philippines for the upcoming in-orbit final round. Insights on each team’s mission performance, time record, and scores were also generated during the preliminary round.
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.
For more information on the challenge, visit: https://jaxa.krpc.jp