Moon rover built by Wrocław University of Technology students proved best during the European Rover Challenge competition organized last weekend. The PWR Rover Team obtained the largest number of points among 10 teams from the entire world.
Two disciplines were organized on Saturday. In the first task, the rover was to move to a specified place after receiving GPS coordinates.
“The rover managed to reach all three places, follow strictly the defined path and successfully arrive back at the base. Unfortunately, at one place we stopped at a distance larger than 3 metres, so we wouldn’t get points for that task.” – reported the team members.
In the second discipline, the vehicle was to collect ground samples. The students’ moon rover reached the three specified places but managed to collect samples only from two of them.
After the troublesome Saturday, Sunday turned out much more successful for our students. Their “Scorpio 4” performed very well in the Assistance discipline, during which it was to carry spare parts from a warehouse to the place of reparation. It fulfilled the task entirely. The vehicle was also very well assessed by the jury during presentation.
Yt
Ultimately, students from the Wrocław University of Technology Chair of Machinery and Industrial Vehicles Engineering took first place in the competition, ahead of teams from Kielce University of Technology (“Impuls”), and from University of Cairo, Egypt (Sstlab Lunar & Mars Rovers Team). As winners, they received a prize of 1000 USD.
The rover was built by: Szymon Dzwończyk (Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering), Dorota Budzyń (Control Engineering and Robotics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering), Konrad Cop (Control Engineering and Robotics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering), Agnieszka Rumińska (Biotechnology, Faculty of Biotechnology, and Astronomy, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wrocław), Max Hayder (Electronics and Telecommunications, Faculty of Electronics), Bartłomiej Matuszkiewicz (Control Engineering and Robotics, Faculty of Electronics), Julia Marek (Optics, Faculty of Fundamental Problems of Technology), Dawid Bara (Control Engineering and Robotics, Faculty of Electronics), Krzysztof Szybiński (Electronics and Telecommunications, Faculty of Electronics), and Jędrzej Górski (doctoral student at Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering).
The competition was held at the Regional Centre for Science and Technology in Podzamcze Chęcińskie (Świętokrzyskie Province, Poland). It was organized by Mars Society Polska in co-operation with the Planet PR agency, the Świętokrzyskie Provincial Office, and the Regional Centre for Science and Technology. 17 teams were to take part in the competition – not only from Europe, but also from e.g. Egypt, India, and Columbia – but eventually, because of visa problems, only 10 of them arrived at the competition site. Next year, another edition of the European Rover Challenge is to take place, again in Poland.
lucy
Translation: Dariusz Więcławski