Silver medal for Monash's Pink Rover

The Monash Nova Rover team and their Pink Rover have achieved a podium finish placing second among 37 teams from around the world in the University Rover Challenge (URC) in Utah, USA.

The 2023 Pink Rover named “Waratah” excelled as it was put through its paces in four gruelling missions over three days at the Mars Desert Research Station.

Team members worked tirelessly (despite long hours) to complete each competition round successfully.

Associate Professor Chao Chen of the Department of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, academic advisor to the team, paid tribute to the successful students.

“The result demonstrates the superior design and development of the Monash rover and is a tribute to the incredible talents and creativity of the students,” he said.

In a devastating setback, Waratah’s antenna and radio were damaged by strong winds during an early test run. Thankfully, teams from Queen’s University, Canada, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison donated some much needed spare parts; without their help, the Monash team would not have been able to compete.

On the Science mission, the rover successfully collected all designated samples and the team expertly conducted scientific analysis.

In the chill of the early desert morning, the Monash team professionally handled the first stage of the Extreme Retrieval and Delivery mission by remotely operating the robot to open a toolbox, obtaining the information inside, and searching in the given terrain.

However, the team was unable to detect a designated “special” rock in a rock garden to progress to the second stage of this task. In fact, it transpired that no other team progressed to the second stage of the task, showing the level of difficulty posed at this world-standard competition.

The Pink Rover excelled in the Equipment Servicing mission, lifting a tool box, turning on switches, opening and closing a door, typing on a keyboard, and even plugging and unplugging a USB.

In the Autonomous Navigation mission, Waratah successfully reached three designated GPS locations and two AR code flags in complicated terrain.

The judges were highly impressed with both the performance of the Monash rover and the team's preparation, expertise and professionalism.

Organisers of the URC loved the Pink Rover, going out of their way to photograph it, and tweeted that the pink paint job was “an awesome way to start a conversation about girls and women in STEM”.

The Monash Nova Rover team will now spend a short time in California visiting NASA’s Ames Research Centre and Jet Propulsion Laboratory before returning to Australia.