COMPETITION OVERVIEW
RASC-AL Exploration Robo-Ops Competition (i.e., Robo-Ops) is an engineering competition sponsored by NASA and organized by the National Institute of Aerospace. In this exciting competition, undergraduate and graduate students are invited to create a multi-disciplinary team to build a planetary rover prototype and demonstrate its capabilities to perform a series of competitive tasks in field tests at the NASA Johnson Space Center’s Rock Yard in June 2013.
Based on Project Plans submitted by Sunday, December 9, 2012, up to 8 teams will be selected to participate in the challenge. The Robo-Ops Steering Committee will review each team's project plan and announce the qualifying teams by December 19, 2012.
Up to 8 qualifying teams will be selected to receive a $10,000 award to facilitate full participation in the Robo-Ops competition, including expenses for rover development, materials, testing equipment, hardware and software. At the 2013 RASC-AL Robo-Ops Competition in Houston, the rovers will compete on a planetary analog environment under the supervision of NASA judges. Up to three members of the team (plus the faculty advisor) will travel to JSC for the on-site testing. The remaining team members will stay behind at the local university to conduct "mission control" tasks. The prototype rovers will be tele-operated by the university team and must negotiate a series of obstacles while accomplishing a variety of tasks. Sample tasks include: negotiating specified up slopes and down slopes, traversing sand and gravel pits, picking up specific rock samples and placing them on the rover for the remainder of the course, and driving over rocks of specified diameter.
Each rover will be required to be controlled from the home university campus via a commercial broadband wireless up link. The only information available to the rover controller to perform the required tasks will be information transmitted through on-board rover video camera(s) or other on-board sensors. Cameras will allow the transmission of the competition back to the home universities as well as the general public.
Competition Website: http://www.nianet.org/RoboOps-2013/index.aspx
Based on Project Plans submitted by Sunday, December 9, 2012, up to 8 teams will be selected to participate in the challenge. The Robo-Ops Steering Committee will review each team's project plan and announce the qualifying teams by December 19, 2012.
Up to 8 qualifying teams will be selected to receive a $10,000 award to facilitate full participation in the Robo-Ops competition, including expenses for rover development, materials, testing equipment, hardware and software. At the 2013 RASC-AL Robo-Ops Competition in Houston, the rovers will compete on a planetary analog environment under the supervision of NASA judges. Up to three members of the team (plus the faculty advisor) will travel to JSC for the on-site testing. The remaining team members will stay behind at the local university to conduct "mission control" tasks. The prototype rovers will be tele-operated by the university team and must negotiate a series of obstacles while accomplishing a variety of tasks. Sample tasks include: negotiating specified up slopes and down slopes, traversing sand and gravel pits, picking up specific rock samples and placing them on the rover for the remainder of the course, and driving over rocks of specified diameter.
Each rover will be required to be controlled from the home university campus via a commercial broadband wireless up link. The only information available to the rover controller to perform the required tasks will be information transmitted through on-board rover video camera(s) or other on-board sensors. Cameras will allow the transmission of the competition back to the home universities as well as the general public.
Competition Website: http://www.nianet.org/RoboOps-2013/index.aspx