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Mars rover Magma2 built at Białystok University of Technology won the prestigious international competition University Rover Challenge (URC) in the U.S. Two other Polish rovers took fourth and sixth place.
According to the team representatives, Magma2 defeated Canadian robot
work from York University and Americans rover from Oregon State
University, constructors of which had help from NASA.
"The great success of Polish teams is a result of the hard work of
students, universities and the organizers. We have proved that Polish
engineers can successfully compete in the field of mobile robotics, and
we marked our aspirations to be a country involved in space exploration.
This is particularly important in the context of the Polish efforts to
become a member of the European Space Agency (ESA) and develop domestic
technologies that will improve our standard of living and
competitiveness" - said Mateusz Józefowicz of Mars Society Poland.
URC
competition was held in the desert in Utah, close to a simulated Mars
Society base. For three days automated rovers performed complicated
tasks, including reconnaissance, searching for traces of life in soil
samples and delivering a medpack to an injured astronaut. Rovers had to
withstand the heat and dust in Mars-like conditions.
For taking
first place, in addition to financial rewards Magma2 team will also
receive the opportunity to present the robot at the International Mars
Society Convention, which will be attended by representatives from NASA
and companies manufacturing equipment used in the exploration of space.
Magma2
has a relatively simple design and is made of lightweight materials.
Including basic equipment, the robot weighs about 30 about kg. According
to the designers’ website, separate equipment was design for each task
of the competition: an articulated manipulator to collect rock samples,
Cartesian manipulator to operate the control panel, set of containers
for first aid kits for injured astronauts, and above all two hexacopters
- small flying devices used for air observation of the area in which
the rover operates.
"This is the first time flying objects have
been used in the history of the competition. Magma2 rover will take
observation tasks to a new level not only in the URC competition, but in
mobile robotics in general. Until now, this technology existed only in
science-fiction films, now it is applied in practice" - the designers
explained on their website.
Last year, the predecessor of this
year's winner, the rover Magma prepared by a team from Białystok
University of Technology and the Nicolaus Copernicus University in
Toruń, took third place in the URC.
At this year's contest Poland
was also represented by Scorpio robot built by a 12-person team of
students from the Faculty of Electronics and the Faculty Mechanical
Engineering of Wrocław University of Technology. Scorpio took fourth
place.
Sixth place went to the rover Copernicus built by students
and a graduate of the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics of
the Nicolaus Copernicus University.(PAP)
last modification: 2011-06-24
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