European Rover Challenge - one of the biggest space robotics contest in Europe. Let me share with you our official invitation letter below. Additionally I'm attaching first Infoguide where interested students can find some basic informations about rules and registering.

ERC 2021 – the most inspiring space and robotics event

Young Martian robot designers from around the world will meet again in Poland in the City of Kielce to take part in the 7th edition of the prestigious ERC competition. This year, they can expect the newly formed Mars Yard, field competitions focused on the increasing autonomy of the designed robots and additional award categories. This year besides the usual competition we're offering remote edition - where students from all over the world can try their skills in tasks similar to how looks steering real Mars Rover.

ERC belongs to the world league of robotics competitions, the Rover Challenge Series. The event is addressed to students, graduates and university employees. The teams are tasked with designing and building a Mars rover analog that will receive the highest score in five competitions: four field tasks simulating Mars exploration and a project presentation.

We invite teams from all over the world – the ERC STUDENT formula

As part of individual field tasks, Martian robots will have to perform four tasks. Science - prepare and execute a simple science-driven exploration plan of our Marsyard. Maintenance - demonstrate the ability of rovers operating in variety of elements mounted on a panel. Probing - demonstrate the ability of the system to place and collect probes from the rover's cache in the locations selected in the Science task. Navigation - demonstrate the system's ability for semi to fully autonomous traverse.

For universities, the ERC competition is a great opportunity to present their offer and projects carried out by students. Participation in the ERC allows them to enrich their curriculum through practical experience in creating documentation in accordance with NASA and ESA requirements. The competition also gives the opportunity to establish cooperation with specialists from the space sector companies and exchange contacts with potential sponsors, investors and employers.

Like in previous editions, the event will be accompanied by the Science and Technology Show Zone, which includes, among others, presentations, workshops and lectures for the enthusiasts of space, robotics and science of all ages.

5th edition of the ERC competition gathered 100,000 observers. The three-day event was visited by over 25,000 guests who came to Kielce literally from all over Poland. Three times as many people participated in live streamings on many online portals and social media. There were over 400 competitors from 13 countries taking part in the competition, including Australia, Columbia, India, Bangladesh, Italy, Great Britain, Germany and Poland. Special guests included Steve Jurczyk, Associate Administrator at NASA, Gianfranco Visentin, Head of Automation and Robotics Section at ESA and the coordinator of the European space robotics consortium PERASPERA, Maria Antonietta Perino, Director International Network Opportunities Development at Thales Alenia Space Italy, Pantelis Poulakis, Mobile System Engineer in the ExoMars mission of the European Space Agency, and Artemis Westenberg, CEO at Explore Mars Europe, a non-profit organization.

 Looking at the struggles on the Mars Yard, Steve Jurczyk emphasized the importance of such competitions as ERC in developing the soft skills of future space sector employees: Everything we do in the space business is done in very large teams. So, ability to work in a team and communicating with specialists from various sectors is really important, as well as technical skills. ERC competition teaches participants that every big project is a sum of smaller activities and all of them need to be successfully performed in order to make the whole thing work.

Registration of teams to the ERC STUDENT formula will last until the end of February.

Detailed information on the competition, documentation and regulations can be found on the ERC website: www.roverchallenge.eu

Co-organisers of the ERC 2021 include the European Space Foundation, Starachowice Special Economic Zone and Kielce University of Technology in cooperation with the City of Kielce. The patronage over the event was taken by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the European Space Agency.

Facebook: facebook.com/europeanroverchallenge
Twitter: @rover_challenge

Further information here!