Previous Challenges

Want to know more about the Australian Rover Challenge? See galleries, videos and scoring information from our past challenges.

2023

  • Overview and winners

    What a massive four days of the 2023 Australian Rover Challenge (ARCh)!

    This year saw eight teams of over 180 student participants, including the Projekt Scorpio team all the way from Poland, join in the competition!

    Well done to our winning teams:

    • Monash Nova Rover (Melbourne, Australia)
    • Projekt Scorpio (Wrocław, Poland)
    • University of Melbourne Rover Team (Melbourne, Australia)

    Shout out also to the Adelaide Rover Team for taking home Best Team Culture, and Queensland University of Technology Robotics Club (QUTRC) for scoring Best New Team!

    Our favourite part of the ARCh is the camaraderie and community between the team workshop tents, with countless stories of large and small acts of kindness when a critical rover part fails.

    It's incredible to see so many new and growing Australian (and international!) teams coming to Adelaide to showcase their capabilities in developing and operating their rovers.

    Special thanks to our sponsors:

    • Premier partner Boeing
    • Major partners ispace and the Australian Space Agency
    • Event supporters Defence SA, SASIC and Drone Deploy

    If you missed the action, you can still check out the livestream recordings.

  • Scores and awards

    2023 challenge scoreboard

    Team Name

    University

    Country

    CDR

    SAR

    PostLanding

    Excavation Construction

    Space Resources

    Mapping Autonomous

    TOTAL

    Monash Nova Rover

    Monash University

    Australia

    20.4

    65.7

    90

    72.7

    46.5

    40

    335.3

    Project Scorpio

    Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

    Poland

    17

    38.8

    80

    55.6

    54

    63

    308.4

    UniMelb Rover Team (URT)

    University of Melbourne

    Australia

    15.9

    50.5

    75

    6.0

    51

    0

    198.4

    QUTRC Artemis

    Queensland University of Technology

    Australia

    19.7

    39.5

    60

    4.5

    12

    20

    155.7

    UQ Space Inc.

    University of Queensland

    Australia

    23.1

    54.1

    4.5

    4.3

    51

    9

    146.0

    Adelaide Rover Team

    University of Adelaide

    Australia

    20.5

    48.2

    18

    4.9

    46.5

    0

    138.1

    UTS Rover Team

    University of Technology Sydney

    Australia

    12.0

    53.0

    0

    4.5

    42.5

    0

    112.0

    RMIT Rover Team

    Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

    Australia

    13.4

    34.1

    0

    0.6

    33.5

    0

    81.6

  • Tasks and rules

    Tasks

    The Australian Space Agency post-landing task

    Your Rover has just landed on the surface of the Moon. Your team is now required to execute a task list to work towards establishing an in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) outpost. Tasks include: conduct a systems check on the lander and relay any damage to the judges, navigate to and find the location of the Supply Caches while traversing past obstacles, and initiate a start-up protocol.

    The ispace space resources task

    To demonstrate its ability to conduct foundation services, Rovers are expected to  perform in-situ resource identification and processing of icy lunar regolith (extraterrestrial soil) to determine which unexplored sample site may yield the greatest amount of frozen water, and to extracted as much water as possible to support human life-support systems and refueling of spacecraft.

    The construction and excavation task

    Your rover is expected to conduct a variety of activities on the lunar surface including the extraction, transport and deposition of dry lunar regolith in an ISRU hopper, as well as performing surface preparations including terrain assessment, shaping and/or debris clearing, and interacting with or deploying artificial structures.

    The Boeing mapping and autonomous task

    Your rover is required to map the area and traverse autonomously in support of establishing a sustainable, long-duration ISRU base.


    Rules and key dates

    Find the latest rules and requirements, including key dates, rover and challenge rules, scoring, prizes and more.

    Rules and requirements

  • Videos


2022

  • Overview and winning teams

    This year's challenge saw Australian university students building, operating and competing their semi-autonomous rovers in a simulated lunar environment, accomplishing navigation, resource utilisation, and construction tasks while assisted and mentored by international industry and government partners.

    The rovers attempted In-situ resource evaluation, performed semi-autonomous tasks and interacted with the environment using a robotic arm. In addition to the physical challenge, students presented their rover designs to industry professionals, academia and Australian Rover Challenge judges. 

    After three sunny days on the Maths Lawn at the University of Adelaide's North Terrace camps, the students completed their four challenges while entertaining spectators for the top spot. The results were:

    • Winner – Monash University 
    • Runner up – University of Melbourne
    • Best team culture – UTS

    Congratulations to our other participants, University of Adelaide and University of Queensland.

    Thank you to all of our student participants and our industry partners and sponsors for such an exciting competition!

  • Scores and awards

    After the marking of the Preliminary Design Review, teams were given a score out of 15 Challenge points. The top three teams and their scores are listed below.

    • Monash Nova Rover - Monash University 13.6
    • RMIT Rover Team - RMIT University 12.0
    • Adelaide Rover Team - The University of Adelaide 11.6

    After the marking of the System Acceptance Review, teams were given a score out of 25 Challenge points. The top three teams and their scores are listed below.

    • Monash Nova Rover - Monash University 22.3
    • Adelaide Rover Team - University of Adelaide 19.3
    • UQ Space - University of Queensland 18.4

    The top three teams after the reporting deliverables out of 40 Challenge points are listed below.

    • Monash Nova Rover - Monash University 35.9
    • Adelaide Rover Team - University of Adelaide 30.9
    • UQ Space - University of Queensland 28.7
  • Video

  • Final rules

    View the final rules and requirements for the 2022 challenge.

    2022 final rules

  • Information recording sessions

    Webinar and Q&A session: 25 August 2021

    On Wednesday 25 August 2021, the Australian Rover Challenge Organising Committee hosted a webinar and Q&A session. For those that were unable to attend, please find a recording of the video here.

    Webinar and Q&A session: 6 October 2021

    In this second ARC 2022 webinar, the ARC Organising Committee addressed changes and elaborations to the ruleset. Featuring the ARC judges David Harvey and Rini Akmeliawati, as well as ARC Organisers and Rules Developers, Daniel Ricardo and Henry Lourey.

    Webinar and Q&A session: 14 December 2021

    The ARC organising committee discuss the recently released System Acceptance Review (SAR) and Distributed Field Test (DFT) requirements document, and answer questions from attendees.


2021

  • Overview, winning teams and awards

    The challenge was for students to design, build and operate their semi-autonomous rover in a simulated luna environment. Put to the test, the rovers had to  conduct In-situ resource evaluation, perform semi-autonomous tasks and interact with the environment using a robotic arm. In addition to the physical challenge, students presented their rover designs to industry professionals, academia and Australian Rover Challenge judges.

    After two (mostly) sunny days on the Maths Lawn at the University of Adelaide's North Terrace camps, the students completed their four challenges while entertaining spectators for the top spot. The results were:

    • 1st place – Monash University 
    • 2nd place – RMIT
    • 3rd place – The University of Adelaide 

    We also asked each team to select their Most Valuable Team member – this award recognises the individual’s contribution to the team and going over and above to help the team during the lead up to and during the competition. The following were selected:

    • Will De La Rue – Monash University 
    • Dave Tucker – RMIT 
    • Abigail Sparnon – The University of Adelaide 

    Thank you to all of our student participants and our industry partners and sponsors for such an exciting competition!

    The Australian Rover Challenge partnered with the South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC) and was supported by the Australian Space Agency  and the SmartSAT CRC.

  • Video

  • Final rules

    View the final rules and requirements for the 2021 challenge.

    2021 final rules