Rover Team hoping for a third trip to international finals

For the past two years, the Binghamton University Rover Team has traveled to the University Rover Challenge, competing against other students from around the world in the alien-like landscape of the Utah desert.

The Binghamton University Rover Team hopes to keep the basic design of the 2024 rover and make modifications for its 2025 entry. Image Credit: Provided.

Rules of the Rover Challenge

There are four main tasks to determine a winner of the University Rover Challenge:

• Finding a predetermined location autonomously, using cameras and sensors to traverse that journey without bumping into things or getting stuck.
• Collecting and analyzing soil samples for chemical composition or signs of microscopic life.
• Building a robot arm that must manipulate different objects such as a drawer, a keyboard and a series of switches to show its ability and dexterity
• Using the arm to retrieve and deliver large objects such as rocks and toolboxes.

The entry can't weigh more than 70 kilograms or cost more than $22,000, and it must fit inside a 1.2-meter cube.

Before the organizers of the University Rover Challenge invite schools to the finals, the teams must submit preliminary designs in December, receive feedback and then submit a video in March showing their rovers' capabilities traversing different situations.

Team members want to make the trip west for a third time - so while most of their classmates keep their thoughts strictly earthbound this semester, they are figuring out new ways to survive and thrive on other planets.

Leading this year's intrepid crew of about 50 students are Rebecca Carpenter (chief engineer) and Matthew Stancampiano (technical project manager), both veterans of the international competition.

"It's been a lot of fun taking on more responsibilities, year after year, and seeing more about the inner workings of things," said Carpenter, a senior majoring in computer engineering at Binghamton's Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science. "I'm really excited to be chief engineer of the team. I think it'll be a great year - we have a lot of good plans."

The Rover Team started as a capstone project for Watson College seniors, but it has operated as an independent, student-run group for the past five years. Although many members are from Watson, students from disciplines all over campus take part in building the exploration vehicle.

When the nonprofit Mars Society - which organizes the University Rover Challenge - invited the Binghamton team to the international finals for the first time in 2023, students were excited but also a little stunned.

"That first one felt like a fluke!" Stancampiano, a junior studying mechanical engineering, admitted with a laugh. "We thought, 'We actually made it. This is crazy!' And then last year, we all looked at each other and said, 'We made it once, and we can do this - we have to keep doing it!'"

That initial year meant learning the terrain (literally) at the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, Utah, located at the end of a 5-mile dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Binghamton finished at a respectable 23rd place out of 37 finalists.

In May, team members returned to Utah better prepared and knowing what to expect. They also had improved their troubleshooting abilities, making them more able to fix issues on the fly. At the end of the four-day competition, they scored 20th place out of 38 teams.

They also got a better look at the competition, inspiring some ideas for the future.

"A lot of things that other teams are doing are very interesting, but a little far-fetched for us at this point," Stancampiano said. "Some of these top-level teams have been around for 10 or 20 years. We can do it - we just need two or three years to get to that point. There are certain milestones between where we are now and where they are, and we should strive for those first."

For the 2024-25 competition, the Binghamton team plans some improvements on the previous iteration of the rover, including a new electrical enclosure that will distribute weight more evenly for faster (and steadier) driving speeds.

"The team exceeded our goal at this year's competition, improving on last year's performance by several metrics," said Professor Douglas Summerville, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department chair and team advisor. "With the basic rover design remaining the same for next year, they should be even better prepared to continue the forward momentum."

Although taking on an extracurricular activity like designing and building a interplanetary rover can be demanding, it offers fun challenges and allows team members to develop new skills.

"There's no other experience like being on a project team," Carpenter said. "You get to see how to apply what you've been learning in class and take it from a theoretical to a practical level. I've grown a lot as a leader, too. I used to be so nervous to give presentations in front of people, but now I have no problems speaking in front of the entire team. You also learn how to work with a lot of different people and how to manage a lot of different personalities."

At Homecoming 2024 in September, the Binghamton University Rover Team met with Geraldine MacDonald '68, MS '73, LittD '17, who has sponsored travel to the University Rover Challenge in 2023 and 2024. Image Credit: Chris Kocher.

The Rover Team could not reach as high without donors to help. Industrial sponsors include IBM Corp., Zyltech, RLS LLC and CubeMars, while Geraldine MacDonald '68, MS '73, LittD '17, has stepped up to sponsor travel to Utah in 2023 and 2024.

"She's the reason why we've been able to go to the competition the past two years," Carpenter said. "She is amazing, and we're so grateful for her and all of our other sponsors."

Stancampiano also credits the team's alumni for guidance: "All of our former executive members are active in our Discord chat, giving us advice for anything that we need. For any big changes or big purchases, we run it past them first. They'll know we should be spending $2,000 on something. A lot of knowledge there."

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