“At FHNW, we have our own ideas of how things should work, but at the ERC, most of the things you take for granted are just your own assumptions.”

During the summer break, a group of students from our university travelled with their rover and drone to the European Rover Challenge in Poland. They had to face 24 other teams from all over the world during three days of intense competition. This year, they placed fifth, so I sat down with three FHNW Rover Team members to get some insight on the experience.

Meet the FHNW Rover Team

The FHNW Rover Team is an interdisciplinary group of engineering and science students who work on developing a rover and drone every year to compete at the European Rover Challenge (ERC). This year’s team brought together mechanical and electrical engineers, computer scientists, biologists, and even geologists from the University of Bern. Most members are in their second year of the bachelor’s program, and first timers on the rover team. Each student is responsible for a specific subsystem under the guidance of department coaches.

Their most important team member is Wambo, the team’s current rover. It’s their third-generation model, built with an extra-light chassis and a modular nose that can hold either a robotic arm or a science tool. The deep-drilling system is a separate removable module mounted in the rover. This setup makes the rover stand out in competition, giving it the flexibility to adapt to different tasks. Wambo also has a “pet” drone, Melifera, designed with a honeycomb-inspired base structure.

To understand what the competition in Poland was really like, I sat down with:

• Luca Widmer, mechanical engineer responsible for the deep drill,
• Miro Albrecht, computer scientist in charge of the autonomous navigation system,
• and Melvin Deubelbeiss, electrical engineer overseeing electronics development, task planning and this year’s new project lead.

What is the European Rover Challenge?

According to my three interviewees the ERC in Krakow is inspiring, challenging, interesting, stressful and unanimously fun. It is a yearly international robotics competition organized by the European Space Foundation and is the largest international Mars rover competition in Europe. This year it was hosted by the AGH University of Krakow.

In this year’s edition, 25 teams were selected from over 100 applications from universities from all over the globe. The tasks of the ERC faced by the teams were inspired by real challenges encountered daily by specialists from space agencies. The teams face each other on the so-called Marsyard, a unique installation designed by planetary geologists, inspired by a selected part of the Red Planet. Some of the tasks the robots had to accomplish were autonomously explore terrain, collect and secure samples for astrobiological analyses, perform precise servicing operations, and even collaborate with drones to search for objects in difficult environments.

Seeing how differently teams approached the exact same tasks made a strong impression on the FHNW students. “It was very interesting to see how people came up with different solutions for the exact same thing,” said Luca. Miro added, “At FHNW, we have our own ideas of how things should work, but at the ERC, most of the things you take for granted are just your own assumptions.” And for Melvin, one lesson stood out above the rest: “A lot is about talking to other teams.”

Behind-the-Scenes Struggles  

A competition doesn’t come without challenges, and while the audience enjoyed the show on the Marsyard, crisis after crisis was being averted in the garage.

A few days before departure, the deep-drilling system suddenly stopped working. “It had a couple of problems that never came up before… I didn’t panic, but it was like, ‘oh no, what’s going on?’” Luca recalled. “Luckily it was an easy fix, but it showed how important planning really is.”

Autonomous navigation proved to be the most unpredictable task, partly because the system was still largely untested when the team arrived in Poland. “That’s not something to be proud of,” Miro admitted, “but surely the biggest technical challenge at the ERC was to just get everything working from that state.” During the task, the rover even crashed into rocks, damaging parts of the drivetrain. The mechanical team spent the night repairing it so the rover would be ready for the next challenge.

Melvin remembered his own sleepless night when, during the final hour of testing, the microcontroller essential for the science tool was discovered to be damaged. Every minute awake instead of asleep “was totally worth it at the end,” he said. “In the end, that science task was the one where we had the most points (…) Even though we placed fifth, this science tool is something I can be proud of.”

In the end, these crises showed the strength of the team: no matter the problem, everyone found themselves pitching in to get the rover back on track.

Everlasting Memories

Beyond the pressure of the competition, the ERC was a place where team members connected with ESA specialists, industry engineers, and peers from all over the world. Among the many teams they met was fellow Swiss team EPFL Explore, who went on to win first place. It was also a powerful bonding experience for the FHNW Rover Team. As Miro put it, “We got to know each other a lot better because we’re spending so much time together.” He added, “I also have this image of me sitting on the lawn next to the yard doing something on my laptop while everyone is working in a very unusual setup hacking around the rover.”

One of the more memorable moments came on the final day, after the probing task where four teams faced each other on the Marsyard. Luca swapped jerseys with a member of an Italian team, like in the NBA, and later the FHNW students went into Krakow with several other teams to celebrate the end of a year of hard work.

For the FHNW Rover Team, the ERC was more than three days of competition in Poland, it was a lifetime’s worth of memories and lessons. Months of work, long nights, problem-solving, and teamwork finally catalyzed into a shared experience. It was a reminder that the ERC isn’t just about scores or rankings, but about the people you meet, the challenges you push through together, and the brief, intense competition period where everything you’ve built finally comes to life.

The FHNW Rover Team would like to thank their sponsors without whom the participation in the European Rover Challenge would not be possible.