Newcomers got a chance to compete at the robot competition in Poland

The Polish branch of the Rover Challenge in Kielce is a popular competition destination for the RoverOva team, which consists mainly of robotics students from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. In previous years, the students have regularly finished in the top ten of the starting field - and once even took silver and bronze. Although they did not continue their great success this year, the eighteenth place is a good stepping stone for all the newcomers who were in charge of this year's race. "They had our trust, they made their own decisions. We wanted them to catch on just like we did back then," said team captain Adam Boleslavsky, a PhD student.

The task for the new season

The team travelled to Poland in full numbers, as moving cars was cheap and also allowed them to easily transport the robot without the students having to dismantle it. Several missions awaited them on location. In the navigation one, the team was initially successful, but then the robot got stuck on a rock and failed to reach its destination within the time limit. "The rock was deliberately not plotted on the 3D map we were following, which was to test the rover's ability to avoid obstacles. Some teams didn't have a problem because their robots already had automatic object avoidance devices installed," Boleslavsky explained. According to him, one of the main tasks of the RoverOva team is to develop and install a similar device on the rover by next season. "It will be dealt with by a student in his thesis," the team captain specified.

Assignment of final thesis topics

They gave out several thesis topics in relation to the upcoming rover innovations. For example, there is to be a bachelor's thesis addressing how to take deep soil samples, which was part of this year's science mission. "We weren't prepared for it, the organisers kept changing the instructions. In addition, the effector broke during the soil scooping. It was still fine during the tests, but in the competition the soil was harder," Boleslavsky explained the reasons for the failure in the science mission.

A geologist from HGF wanted

In addition, the RoverOva team is noticeably lacking someone who could test hypotheses about rock formation and help the engineering students with the next part of the science mission. "We need a geologist, actually ideally a female geologist. To cover that technical part and also to balance our boy-team superiority," the captain acknowledged.

Where the team succeeded, however, was in the service mission - their strongest discipline. The rover was tasked with proving that it could handle the buttons on the panel, which the Ostrava robot did. "The new arm with effectors worked well. We are not planning any changes to the chassis either. The only thing that was wrong was the electronics," said Boleslavský. The team also won a solid result in the presentation mission, where the jury evaluated the public presentation of the rover and the whole team, cooperation with companies, the functioning of the team and the training of newcomers.

New members wanted

All together, the team finished eighteenth in a competition of twenty-five teams. But the captain has no regrets about the strategy. "We sacrificed a good placing to train and motivate the newcomers. And it worked," commended Adam Boleslavsky. And what does the RoverOva team expect next year? They will try again to compete in competitions in Poland and Turkey, as well as recruit new team members. "Everyone who is passionate about the cause is an asset to the team. Let us hear from you," captain Adam told the students. If you would be interested in working on the team, feel free to email roverova@vsb.cz.