Hosted by National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Mechatronic Technology and sponsored by Innovati Inc., the 2009 National Biped Robot Competition came to a successful conclusion at National Taiwan Normal University's General Building on November 21, 2009. The competition comprised three events:  humanoid robot soccer penalty shootout, robot dancing competition and robot treasure hunting competition. The event attracted nearly 70 teams and over 200 students and lecturers from all over Taiwan.

During the robot soccer competition, participating teams pit robots in a penalty kick shootout using a standard tennis ball. Both sides took turns to shoot and defend the goal. The purpose of this event was to test the robots' agility and maneuvers performed by the contestants. The scoring criteria for the event were quick response and special movement designs. For the dancing competition, points were awarded based on performance creativity, overall design, overall performance and performance music. The key to winning the competition was having a good grasp of all scoring criteria. The robot treasure hunting competition was designed to test the robots' moving speed and their ability to judge the best path and detect the paths. In order for a robot to overcome the challenge successfully, it depended entirely on the contestants' proficiency with sensor applications and program design.

Two additional events were included at the competition: the "Two-on-two soccer demonstration" and "Robot fighting demonstration" featured as a warm up for next year's competition. Professor Chen Chin-Pao (host of the event) from National Taiwan Normal University's Department of Mechatronic Technology emphasized that special efforts have been made to ensure that the unique biped robot competitions would incorporate elements of technology, sport and dance to make the event more interesting and fun, not just for the contestants, but also the audience as well. He hopes that the competition would inspire young students' interests in learning more about robots to enhance the level of robot related researches in Taiwan.

The winners of all three events were promptly announced: the team from Minghsin University of Science and Technology came in first place in the "Treasure hunting" event; participants from Wuling Senior High School of Taoyuan emerged as the champion for the "Soccer" event; and the robot designed by the Technology and Science Institute of Northern Taiwan came out on top in the "Dance" event. For more information on the event, visit NTNU's Department of Mechatronic Technology's official website at http://www.mt.ntnu.edu.tw/robotcup/index-1.html?PHPSESSID=78a88c5b8d68664017726253de8193208839ded1