The Challenge

MRover's primary goal is to win the University Rover Challenge (URC). Student teams from all over the world compete in the URC to design and build the best rover for assisting future astronauts. The URC is hosted by The Mars Society, the largest advocacy group for the exploration and settlement of Mars, and it takes place at the Mars Research Station in the Utah Desert. The competition consists of four events:

  • Extreme Retrieval and Delivery - Traveling over tough terrain
  • Equipment Servicing - Manipulating various pieces of equipment with the robotic arm
  • Science Cache - Acquiring soil from a chosen site and evaluating it for signs of life
  • Autonomous Navigation - Driving to GPS coordinates and searching for markers nearby.
CIRC is hosted by the Canadian Space Technology Advancement Group and takes place in Drumheller, Alberta. The competition consists of five events. Four are similar to the URC events and the fifth is a Search and Rescue task occuring at night.

Mechanical Team

Robotic Arm

The Robotic Arm subteam designs and builds a multiple degree-of-freedom robotic arm responsible for completing tasks in the "Equipment Servicing" and "Extreme Retrieval and Delivery" portions of the competition. The arm is able to lift objects, open drawers, push buttons, type on a keyboard, and accomplish other precise movements.

Instruments and Sample Handling

The Instrumentation and Sample Handling subteam designs the mechanisms that are used to conduct various tests detecting signs of life onboard the rover; additionally, the ISH sub-system sends information back to Astrobiology members to effectively analyze rock compositions and types.

Chassis and Mounts

The Chassis and Mounts subteam develops a lightweight and strong chassis that is optimized for the integration of all our sub-systems. They also develop our gimbal camera for operation, physical enclosures for electrical components and wire management for a professional-looking rover.

Mobility

The Mobility subteam develops and builds the drive and suspension systems to navigate through rocks and rough terrain in each competition mission. They work to provide reliable driving and agile maneuvering, while also protecting sensitive onboard equipment from impacts and vibration.

Sample Acquistion

The Sample Acquisition subteam focuses on developing and testing the mechanics of soil collection. Previously, that has included a combination of an auger drill to extract the soil and mechanised scoop to deliver soil to the ISH system.

Astrobiology


The Astrobiology branch is responsible for developing tests to analyze soil and rock samples for signs of past or present life. They research different indicators of life, identify possible tests for those indicators, and then work with the Instrumentation & Sample Handling subteam and others to make those tests work in real-time onboard the rover for URC. And the Astrobiology team conducts the tests themselves at CIRC (where onboard testing is not required).


Software Team

View our open source code at: https://github.com/umrover/mrover-ros

Autonomy

The Autonomy subteam develops high-level, abstracted code that allows the rover to traverse desert terrain and reach desired waypoints, avoid obstacles, and search for field markers. They also work closely with the Perception team and employ GPS, magnetometers, IMUs, and other sensors to achieve the goals of autonomous traversal. Our Navigation subteam falls within Autonomy.

Perception

The Perception subteam develops code to process information about the environment around the rover, gathered from a variety of onboard sensors and cameras. This subteam works closely with Autonomous Navigation, providing them with useful information, which allows the rover to effectively traverse the course.

Teleoperation

The Teleoperation subteam creates the interface between driver and rover. They maintain the GUIs used at the base station used to control the rover and view system metrics, as well as develop control solutions for complex systems (such as our robotic arm) to improve accuracy and usability. Disjointly, the Teleoperation subteam maintains and improves general software infrastructure such as our custom build system.

Embedded Software

The Embedded Software subteam writes low-level driver code that allows the other programming subteams to utilize the electronic equipment on the rover. They work primarily with libraries in C and python, provided by manufacturers, to abstract the functions needed by the other teams for easy use.

Electrical Team

View our open source boards at: https://github.com/umrover/mrover-electrical

Power

The Power subteam is in charge of providing power to the rover and managing the electronics box. They develop custom solutions to distribute power to key systems around the rover and partner with all mechanical subteams to design the best power delivery system for their needs. This year they look forward to improving their custom battery design.

Embedded Hardware

The Embedded Hardware Handling subteam works on controlling actuators, receiving signals from sensors, and managing data connections from the electronics box to external components. They design custom printed circuit boards for sensor interfacing and motor control.

Communications

The Communications subteam is responsible for ensuring a strong, wireless RF communication link between the base station and the rover. This includes testing various radio and antenna equipment in a competition-like environment to select the best RF system for the rover.

Business Team

The business team organizes corporate sponsorships, grants and other fundraising opportunities, such as Giving Blueday, for MRover. The business team is also responsible for keeping the team website up to date and setting up recruitment and community outreach events. Many members of the business team are also members of other subteams.