The European Rover Challenge is the largest international competition for Mars rovers, held in both on-site and remote formats. Once again, the grand finals will take place in the capital of the Małopolska region. The three-day event, organized by the European Space Foundation and AGH, brings together the academic, technology, and business communities from all over the world. The event enjoys international recognition and is considered one of the most important of its kind worldwide.

Young engineers will present the Mars rovers they built, which will carry out complex tasks analogous to those performed during planetary missions. The competition will take place on the Marsyard, a special course covering almost 900 square meters that replicates the challenging Martian conditions.

KNR Rover Team: new drilling module and wheels, improved communication

KNR Rover Team is once again among the ERC finalists. The team has already introduced several upgrades to their rover.

“HAL-062 is being constantly improved by us. The experience from last year’s European Rover Challenge highlighted key areas where we could enhance our rover. Since then, we have modernized the rover’s communication system, switching from 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to 5 GHz Wi-Fi. Our rover has also said goodbye to wheels that have served us for many years. This year, we replaced them with tires made using 3D printing technology from TPU – a material that behaves like rubber after printing. This solution gives us better traction and additionally cushions the platform,” says Mikołaj Stasiak from KNR Rover Team.

Rover HAL-62

The engineers are also preparing for demanding final tasks. They focused on the drilling module and improving the manipulator.

“We also created a brand-new drilling module capable of collecting samples from a depth of 30 cm – it will replace our previous drill, performing the same task while being smaller and lighter. We are also working on switching from an analog to a digital vision system and on improving the gripper of the manipulator,” adds Mikołaj Stasiak.

Rover HAL-62

SKA Robotics: Sirius II and Dedal will compete for a medal

SKA Robotics has been participating in ERC every year since the very beginning of the competition, that is, for 11 years. Since 2022, they have been competing with their rover Sirius II, which has been under development since 2020.

“This year, for the first time, our drone Dedal, which we designed, will also take part in the competition. The latest improvement to the rover was designing and building a completely new robotic arm from scratch. It now has a greater range of motion, is more precise, and lighter. We do not plan any major upgrades before the competition. We are now polishing and refining what we have, and developing small customizations for specific applications,” explains Miłosz Kurtysiak from SKA Robotics.

Rover Sirius II

As our student explains, the drone's task is to autonomously take off and land, including landing in designated zones. Sirius, in turn, will face four main tasks: Navigation Task, Maintenance Task, Science Task, and Probing Task.

“During the autonomous mission, the rover must reach four designated locations on the Marsyard autonomously, without operator assistance. It may navigate using camera images, building a live 3D map (so-called SLAM) and using the GNSS system. In the Maintenance Task, the rover drives to an operator panel containing various toggle and rotary switches and sockets. The task is to flip the designated switches and connect wires to the indicated sockets. This task is designed to test the robotic arm. During the Science Task, the rover moves around the Marsyard searching for evidence supporting a previously developed scientific hypothesis – for example, that the simulated location exhibited volcanic activity. It collects samples and performs chemical analysis, while the operator observes the reactions. A subtask involves collecting a soil sample from a depth of 30 cm and from the surface. The Probing Task consists of five rovers simultaneously searching for hidden probes on the Marsyard. The goal is to find and retrieve three of them as quickly as possible and return to the finish line,” describes Miłosz Kurtysiak.

Rover Sirius II

At the end of the competition, each team also prepares a 10–20-minute presentation in English about the team structure, competition preparation, mistakes made, and lessons learned. The presentation is followed by a discussion with the judges — an opportunity to present feedback on what went well and what didn’t in the organization of the event.

This year, as many as 126 teams from 33 countries registered for the competition (102 on-site and 24 remote), from which the finalists were selected. In the grand finale in Kraków, 25 rovers will compete on-site, with additional teams joining in remote mode. Among the finalists are teams from India, Turkey, Spain, Germany, and the UK, as well as five teams from Poland. The full list of finalists is available on the organizer’s website.