Twelve robots were gathered at the Hong Kong Coliseum yesterday to help reunite two famous lovers from a Chinese tale by building a bridge between them. 'Love Reunion' was the theme of this year's Robocon contest. The challenge, to build a bridge using robots, was taken from a legend about a cowherd and a girl weaver. In the story, lovers Niu Lang and Zhinu are banished to opposite ends of the Milky Way galaxy. Magpies take pity on the two and, using their bodies, form a bridge across the sky so the couple can reunite. In yesterday's competition, teams were allowed to field two robots each to complete a bridge. Alpha, a team of 10 Hong Kong University students, defeated 11 other teams to take first prize. 'We feel very happy. We think we got a bit more luck than the other team in the final round and that is why we won the contest,' said Alien Wong Hon-kwan, a first-year student majoring in mechanical engineering. It took his team six months to build the robots. Alpha goes on to represent Hong Kong at the ABU Robocon in Seoul in September, where they will race against 18 other Asian teams. 'We are confident that we can win the competition in Korea. We have seen some videos of past contests and we think we can win the game,' Mr Wong said. The contest was launched in 2001. This is the first year that Hong Kong has taken part in the event.
