Australian Rover Challenge success

Held 27-28 March, the first ever Australian Rover Challenge gave university students' from across the country the opportunity to put their engineering skills to the test.

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.

See all pictures here  More information about the Australian Rover Challenge