Once again this year, the Rover-Träff was organized by the Rover Team of the FHNW (University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland) from Brugg-Windisch in Switzerland. The event is intended as a supplement to the European Rover Challenge for teams from the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and the focus is on the exchange of ideas and the opportunity to test the new designs.
Friday - 03.05.2024
The participants from Dresden - Carl, Julius, Lucas and Rico - met at the ILR at TU Dresden shortly before 7am. The Institute of Aerospace Engineering has been providing our university group with workspace for over a year now, where the rover is stored, among other things. The plan was to travel to Switzerland in a 9-seater, but first the back seat had to be removed so that the rover and the rest of the luggage had enough space. “It's easier to carry with many hands”, as the saying goes, so everything was quickly rearranged and packed.
Noch ein kurzer Abstecher zum örtlichen Discounter zum Einkaufen von Verpflegung und los ging es!
Our next destination was the small town of Backnang near Stuttgart, where another STAR member, Jonas, was picked up. In Stuttgart, we were immediately confronted with the traffic chaos surrounding Stuttgart 21. In addition to lots of roadworks, wild routes and temporary left-hand traffic, our route through Stuttgart was also characterized by the absence of any cycle paths and most footpaths.
Some time later we arrived at the Swiss border and were through customs in no time and without any checks. From then on, it was only a few kilometers to our destination.
Once we arrived in Brugg-Windisch, we had to get our bearings and find a parking space near the competition site. At a public parking lot, we immediately met some members of the rover team from EPFL Zurich. As the Zurich team had just as little idea as we did where we were going, we decided without further ado to set off together into the great unknown. After a short odyssey through some narrow streets, we were able to find the parking lot and park the cars.
Once we arrived at the competition venue, we had to find the other teams and, of course, our last team member, Elias. This year's Rover-Träff was attended by teams from ERIG (Braunschweig), FRoST (Frankfurt), FHNW (Switzerland), EPFL (Switzerland) and, of course, us.
In the preparation room, we were given badges and our first drinks. The rover was then transported to our work area and everything was prepared so that we would be ready for the competitions on Saturday.
We were also able to exchange ideas directly with the other teams and discuss the progress made since the last ERC.
In the evening, we moved into our team room - a seminar room - where we would sleep for the next few nights.
Saturday - 04.05.2024
Saturday started early, but with a great breakfast prepared by the FHNW organizers. Strengthened with plenty of pastries, we went to a short speech in the team zone. There, all the tasks were briefly introduced so that there was an opportunity to clarify any final questions.
We were then able to go to the competition site for test drives and test our Rover. We had MEROPE from the ERC 2022 with us.
MEROPE has proven to be the most resilient rover to date and therefore serves as a showcase rover for numerous events.
There were a total of four tasks to complete, all of which were based on the ERC 24, but differed in detail.
In collaboration with another team, the task was to install wooden slats in a wooden bridge so that the rovers could cross it. A tricky task, as the wooden slats had to be placed precisely and the correct positions for the wheel spacing of both rovers had to be found.
In the second task, the rovers had to pull sandbags over a distance of around 20 meters, taking a heavy bag with them on each lap.
Task number 3 consisted of a classic maintenance panel, as has always been the case at the ERC. The panel involved replacing fuel rods, repairing fuses, pressing buttons and measuring the voltage in a socket.
The last of the tasks involved collecting soil samples. This involved collecting a stone, distributing measuring probes to specific locations and taking a soil sample with a drill.
After the preparation phase, we were given a great honor when the President of the Swiss National Council, Eric Nussbaumer, gave a speech and then had a brief chat with the teams.
The actual competition started shortly afterwards. Our first task was the bridge construction task. This was tackled in collaboration with the ERIG team from Braunschweig, but was characterized by various additional challenges right from the start. The ERIG team had problems with the robot arm, while our rover had too few cameras to be able to work efficiently. But necessity became a virtue!
With the help of the ERIG's cameras, the two teams were able to work together at their ground stations to create good viewing angles so that MEROPE could place the wooden slats on the bridge. This worked surprisingly well and even went so far that the ERIG rover almost made it over the bridge.
We continued with the towing task. First, a bag weighing 5 kg had to be pulled. After the sack was successfully hooked in with the robot arm, MEROPE pulled the sack masterfully. We continued in round two with a 10kg bag and in round three with a 15kg bag. However, we were unable to complete the third round due to time constraints.
The third challenge was the maintenance task. The first step was to remove old fuel rods and replace them with new ones. That went pretty well. The next step was to press a few buttons. Once that was done, the next task was to find and replace a defective fuse. The fuses, just like the fuel rods, were 3D-printed and looked really great! Once the fuse had been replaced, the voltage in a socket had to be measured.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to do everything and had to stop at the fuses due to time constraints. One of the ropes that move the individual axes of the arm had also come loose, which meant that some movements were no longer possible.
In the last task, we inserted several measuring probes into small holes in the ground. Again, the lack of cameras bit us in the leg (or wheel) as we could barely see the holes. Nevertheless, we placed all the probes in their designated area and even successfully inserted one probe into the hole.
When trying to pick up the stone, however, our gripper reached its limits as the stones were too large to grasp. Similarly, we were unable to take a depth sample as MEROPE was not equipped with a drill.
During the lunch break, there was a food truck serving hot dogs, burgers, curry and more. The break was also a great time to watch the other teams and catch up with each other.
Towards the evening, the competition came to an end and the award ceremony was held. With top results, the FRoST and FHNW teams emerged as the two best teams in a neck-and-neck race. Nevertheless, the FHNW did a little better and can now call itself the winner of the Rover-Träff 2024.
Third place went to us! Even if not everything went perfectly, we were still able to score points with strong results.
Fourth place went to ERIG and fifth place to the EPFL team, who were unfortunately unable to take part in the tasks due to technical problems.
This was followed by a barbecue, where we were able to talk to all the teams again in a pleasant atmosphere. This was also a good time to talk about the rover's problems and new design ideas.
Later that evening, we went for a walk and took a closer look at Brugg-Windisch. The small town has less than 10,000 inhabitants, but has a great old town and lots of nature in the immediate vicinity.
After this evening round, we watched Forrest Gump and then went to bed.
Sunday - 05.05.2024
After another great breakfast, we packed up our rovers and luggage, tidied up and said goodbye to the other teams.
Now we had about 8 hours of driving ahead of us, but with the experiences and impressions in our luggage, the car journey went by in a flash, as we were able to have a good chat.
In the evening, the Rover had to be unloaded again and the back seat installed. Once the car had been returned, everyone went home.
Many thanks at this point to the FHNW team, the associated university and all those who contributed to the Rover-Träff. Without you, this unforgettable event would not have been possible!
Author: Lucas N.
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