Badminton is commonly played by humans, but it will be distinct if robots compete in badminton game. The robot-game badminton (robominton) is also expected to raise emotions and feelings of the players and spectators. In fact, the robominton is still controlled by humans. The expectation was uttered by Ministry of Communication and Informatics of Republic of Indonesia Ridiantara when officially opened ABU Robocon 2015 by the theme of ‘Robot Badminton (Robominton) at Sportorium of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) on Sunday (23/8).

In his welcoming remark, he informed that Indonesia had acted as the host of Badminton World Federation (BWF) last week, and today this nation became the host of Asia-Pacific badminton robot contest. Both contests were quite similar. “The participants of BWF are humans while in this contest the badminton was played by robots. Thus, although it was a robot-badminton robot, the emotion and feeling of badminton game should exist, still, because the robots are handled by humans,” he uttered.

He advised that participants of ABU Robocon 2015 can play supportively. “The supportive feeling may encourage the players to give the best for their countries,” he affirmed.

Rudiantara inserted that winning or losing is not the matter. The main aspect is that they can evolve better and more sophisticated applications and technology,” he added.

Furthermore, Secretary General of Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Dr. Javad Mottaghi delivered a remark that in the ABU Robocon 2015 young generation displayed they can discover and make innovation of technology. Their technology was incredible. “It showed that technology made by young engineers will be much better,” he argued.

Dr. Javad expected that ABU Robocon can be conducted regularly in the next coming years so that young engineers can have occasion to develop themselves. “This ABU Robocon has been 14 years. The contest will provide them an opportunity to enhance their knowledge of technology,” he affirmed.

Moreover, attending the opening ceremony were also Prof. Bambang Cipto,M.A., Director of TVRI Ir. Iskandar Ahmad, M.M., and Director General of DP2M of DIKTI M. Dimyati. They hoped that the contest can bear young generations who can foster more sophisticated technology in their own country.

Additionally, Indonesia badminton legends Susi Susanti and Alan Budi Kusuma also come to the contest. In the opening ceremony, they played badminton with a badminton robot to illustrate that preliminary rounds were officially opened. First match of the contest was Malaysia versus Sri Lanka.