The team from AGH University of Kraków came first, followed by the University of Queensland in second and Monash in third.
The 16 teams were tasked with building and driving their own semi-autonomous rover across a simulated moon surface, which was complete with obstacles like rocks, ridges and craters.
Associate Professor John Culton, the co-founder of the event, said the challenge was one of the most technically demanding student competitions in the world.
“Students are tasked with complex engineering and robotics challenges that mirror real-world lunar exploration,” he said. “The experience is invaluable for developing the skills they’ll need in their future careers.”
The competition, now in its fifth year, took place from Thursday, 27 March to Sunday, 30 March at the University of Adelaide Roseworthy Campus.
Each team was limited to spending $35,000 on their device, which had to operate wirelessly and autonomously where required, with no tethered power sources.
The rovers had to tackle four key challenges: safely disembarking from a lander and accessing nearby equipment, moving and manipulating lunar material, identifying valuable resources hidden within moon dust, and mapping the lunar terrain using only autonomous sensing and navigation.
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Judges included industry experts from ELO2 – the consortium tasked with building Australia’s upcoming lunar rover – as well as the Australian Space Agency, Boeing, Caterpillar and Turen.
Jingyi Khoo Pek Eng Qiu, lead of the University of Adelaide’s Adelaide Rover Team and a Bachelor of Computer Science student, said the competition was both challenging and rewarding.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that not only deepened my passion for space exploration but also allowed me to connect with like-minded students from around the world,” she said.
The chance for students to perform in front of ELO2 comes after the consortium beat rival AROSE in December to be tasked with building Australia’s upcoming lunar rover.
The federal government granted both groups $4 million in 2023 to design an initial prototype for a rover – later named Roo-ver – that will be developed to explore the moon’s surface.
It’s hoped it will be able to collect lunar regolith or moon soil that will eventually be turned into oxygen to support a permanent NASA base.
Regolith can both become oxygen that humans can breathe or aid the production of rocket fuel necessary to support the launch of a rocket from the moon to Mars and beyond.
ELO2 consists of organisations, including universities, SMEs and those in the mining sector. In particular, the University of Adelaide is responsible for the rover’s ongoing testing. Inovor provided the electrical power system and BHP provided expertise in excavation.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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