Wednesday, May 30, 2018

The Mars Society is proud to welcome Protocase back as a major sponsor of the world-renowned University Rover Challenge!

 

More than 12,000 engineers and designers in science and innovation around the world depend on Protocase for custom-manufacturing electronic enclosures, sheet metal parts, machined parts and components in two to three days, with no minimum orders.

 

Instead of using critical design time and effort taking off-the-shelf enclosures, parts and components and modifying them fit your Mars Rover design, all teams registered in the 2018 University Rover Challenge can harness Protocase's state-of-the-art manufacturing to have exactly what they need custom fabricated.

 

 

The Protocase Sponsorship will be similar to the sponsorship offered in previous years:

 Check out The Journey of the University Rover Challenge, which documents the experience of URC teams who worked with Protocase.

 

Learn more about Protocase's custom sheet metal fabrication and CNC Machining.

 

 

Once a team is registered for the 2018 University Rover Challenge, a Protocase account manager will reach out to the team leader to make introductions and confirm contact information.

 

Protocase (as well as other presenting sponsors) will be holding a webinar series in early 2018. This webinar is an important step for all teams, as it will feature an overview of Protocase's manufacturing processes and important design guidelines for sheet metal fabrication and CNC machining. There will be an opportunity to ask questions as well.

 

Details on the webinar will be shared with all registered teams by URC staff within a few weeks.

The four competition tasks for 2018 are updated versions of the 2017 tasks: the Science Cache Task, Extreme Retrieval and Delivery Task, Equipment Servicing Task, and Autonomous Traversal Task. There are several small changes throughout the rules, so teams are encouraged to review the rules closely and not rely on knowledge of the 2017 rules!

With the earlier milestones for URC2018, prospective teams are encouraged to start work as soon as possible! Good luck to all of the teams!

Immediately following the release of the final scores for the 2017 University Rover Challenge (URC2017), the judges were notified of a potential error in the points recorded for the Continuum team (Uniwersytet Wrocławski; Poland) on the Autonomous Traversal Task.  The judges awarded Continuum 70 points for successfully completing five gates; however, the team indicated that their rover had successfully reached the sixth gate during their allotted time.

An initial review of the judges’ field notes was consistent with the 70 points awarded, although in the days following URC2017 judges were able to locate video taken during Continuum’s performance on the Autonomous Traversal Task.  This video review confirmed that Continuum did successfully reach the sixth gate, and earned 85 points during this task.  As a result, Continuum’s total score changed to 336.3, which earns them the second place position at URC2017.

During this detailed review, judges noted the incredibly close margins between the second and fifth place teams (just 21 points of separation).  The URC judges are pleased to announce that they have expanded the podium for URC2017 to the top five teams.  The PCz Rover Team (Częstochowa University of Technology; Poland) finished in third place, BYU Mars Rover (Brigham Young University; USA) finished in fourth, and Raptors (Lodz University of Technology; Poland) finished in fifth place.  The Mars Rover Design Team (Missouri University of Science and Technology; USA) became the first American team to win the competition since 2010.

“On behalf of the University Rover Challenge, I first want to apologize to the teams impacted by this issue,” commented Kevin Sloan, URC Director.  “Our entire judging team takes the scoring process very seriously, however we allowed an inadvertent accounting error to occur which affected the final results.  We have already begun discussions on process changes which we can implement to mitigate similar issues from occurring in the future.”

It is the policy of URC that all judges’ decisions in the field are final.  This case was particularly unique in that the Continuum team was told in the field that they earned 85 points, but the final score only reflected 70 points.  The Continuum team’s attempt on the Autonomous Traversal Course took place in the middle of the final day of the competition, as judges balanced long and busy days with incredibly hot weather conditions.  URC2017 hosted a record 35 teams and more than 500 students.

Updated final scores for 2017 can be found at http://urc.marssociety.org/home/about-urc/urc2017-scores.

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Poland was represented on the podium for the 5th consecutive year, as the PCz Rover Team from the Częstochowa University of Technology won second place. Brigham Young University (BYU) from the United States earned the third position, marking the 6th time they have finished on the podium.

The international robotics competition for college students, which is part of the Mars Society’s Rover Challenge Series, featured an elite field of teams vying to build the world’s best student-designed Mars rover. A record 82 teams from 13 countries took part in URC2017. Following a rigorous two-stage down-selection process 36 teams were invited to the field competition at MDRS. 35 teams from seven countries arrived with their rovers ready for the exciting challenges in the Utah desert.

For its eleventh year URC introduced two new tasks: the Extreme Retrieval and Delivery Task, designed to support astronauts by delivering a variety of items across aggressive terrain; and the Autonomous Traversal Task, the first time that a fully autonomous capability has been required at URC. MRDT, in a display of exceptional engineering and execution, earned perfect scores in each event.

Other tasks included an Equipment Servicing Task in which teams were required to perform maintenance on notional field equipment that involved fine motor skills, and a Science Cache Task in which teams were required to search for signs of life in a method that is applicable to Mars exploration. The latter event is particularly unique in that teams of engineers work with their scientist counterparts to understand the unique requirements field science.

More than 1000 students were involved in URC projects at their local universities during the 2016-17 academic year. The rovers they built reflected the dedication, passion, and ingenuity of the student teams, a point that was not lost on the judges and industry representatives attending the event.

The scores for all teams can be found at http://urc.marssociety.org/home/about-urc/urc2017-scores. For more information, visit URC online at: http://urc.marssociety.org, on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/universityroverchallenge), and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/URConMars).

A record 82 teams from 13 countries began the year trying to design and build the world's best astronaut-assisting Mars rover.  With most teams presenting highly advanced systems, judges were left with an incredibly difficult decision, and ultimately decided to expand the field of competitors from 30 to 36 teams.