BYU Mars Rover team finishes 4th in international robotics competition

Competing with elite teams from 13 countries, BYU engineers recently returned from "Mars" with a fourth place finish in the University Rover Challenge.

Sponsored by The Mars Society, the rover challenge is considered one of the most difficult robotic competitions for students because vehicles must be autonomous and capable of completing various tasks in extremely rugged environments.

After three days of competition in the "Mars-like" desert near Hanksville, Utah, BYU engineers finished fourth with a score of 324.7 points, including a perfect score in the science challenge. The top team was from Missouri University, with Uniwersytet Wrocławski (Poland) finishing second and Częstochowa University of Technology (Poland) finishing third.

BYU's Mars rover team is part of the mechanical engineering Capstone program sponsored by BYU's Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering.

A total of 82 teams from 13 countries participated in the University Rover Challenge: an elite field of 36 teams, including BYU, was selected to compete in Utah (35 participated). The goal, according to the sponsor website, is "to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will one day work alongside human explorers in the field." To learn more about the rover challenge, see http://urc.marssociety.org

Видео BYU Mars Rover team finishes 4th in international robotics competition канала Brigham Young University