Nineteen teams from 18 countries and territories will compete in the 2013 Asia-Pacific robot contest, announced the organising board on August 15 in the central city of Da Nang. 

The board also said that two teams from the Ho Chi Minh City-based Lac Hong University, which entered the final round of the 2013 Vietnam Robocon, will take part in the event that will kick off in Da Nang on August 18. 

This year’s event, themed Green Planet, will include one first, one second and two third prizes. 

According to the rules, each team has to have one automatic robot and one fully manual robot. The Game Field will feature a model of the Earth, with northern and southern hemispheres – plus a moon . 

In each three-minute game, the manual robot has to leave the storage area to collect some “leaves”, and place them in various positions in the southern hemisphere, before continuing to load more. 

Next, the auto-robot takes some leaves to the northern hemisphere, and then loads a “flower bud” for the manual robot so that it can be shot into the moon. The team with the first bud standing on the moon will win the Green Planet title.