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The Brno Mars Rover student team from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication BUT has once again qualified for the finals of the global European Rover Challenge robotics competition. Ranked 10th out of 124 teams from 29 countries, the team secured its place among the world's top 25 student teams. The finals will take place in Poland on September 4–6, 2026.Brno Mars Rover at last year's European Rover Challenge. | Author: Brno Mars Rover While last year the student team received a wildcard entry to the Polish finals of the prestigious European Rover Challenge (ERC), impressing the judges despite a lower score, this year's qualification tells a different story. The team advanced directly from an outstanding 10th place, with the expert jury praising the remarkable progress the team has made over the past year.
This year's success is the result of not only hard work but also significant team growth. The Brno Mars Rover student team has expanded from 10 to 20 members, allowing them to explore technical solutions in much greater depth and focus on maximizing every aspect of the rover's design.The Freya rover with an autonomous drone. | Author: Jakub RozboudThe team will compete with their well-known Freya rover, which has slimmed down from 72 kg to 50 kg since last year's competition. This was achieved by completely redesigning the manipulator arm, making it half as heavy while increasing its load capacity tenfold. The drilling module has also been redesigned, reducing its weight by half without compromising performance. In recent weeks, the team has been finalizing work on a new chassis. "On the software side, we've significantly improved our navigation algorithms, so both the rover and the drone can now navigate their surroundings autonomously without relying on GPS," said team leader Stanislav Svědiroh. He added: "Our modest goal this year is to bring home at least one first-place trophy. We believe our strongest chance is in the autonomous drone navigation challenge."
This year's competition set an exceptionally high standard. To qualify for the finals, teams had to score at least 86% of all possible points, making it the highest qualification threshold in the history of the competition. Interest in ERC continues to grow rapidly every year, with a new record of 124 registered teams in 2026.The Brno Mars Rover team and the Freya rover. | Author: Jakub RozboudThe competition theme, PROLOGUE – MERMAID (Martian Environment Reconnaissance Mission – Autonomous Interior Database), transports participants to the year 2050. Following the success of the Artemis programme, humanity turns its attention to Mars, deploying an autonomous rover to ensure the safety of the first crewed mission scheduled to land in 2056. Throughout the competition, teams will complete a series of independent challenges. During the science mission, they will explore the terrain and collect samples in search of signs of life. In the navigation task, they will demonstrate fully autonomous navigation back to the landing module with the assistance of a reconnaissance drone. Finally, in the maintenance task, they will tackle an unexpected technical failure on an instrument panel caused by a sandstorm. The scenario concludes with the retrieval of data probes three years later and a final technical presentation of the analysis of samples successfully returned to Earth. Altogether, the competition places strong emphasis on engineering reliability, precise operational skills, and autonomous decision-making in the unforgiving Martian environment.The team's technological progress is also reflected in its close collaboration with the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering BUT, specifically the Institute of Manufacturing Technology and the Institute of Machine and Industrial Design. Building on last year's success, the team has also begun establishing strong partnerships with industry. Several team members will complete internships at SVS FEM, while the team has become one of the first customers of CircuitNinja, using the company's new facilities for rapid printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing.The Freya rover with an autonomous drone. | Author: Jakub RozboudThe European Rover Challenge is organised by the European Space Foundation in cooperation with AGH University of Krakow. Held annually in Poland since 2014, ERC ranks among the world's largest international competitions for student robotics teams. For participants, it offers not only the opportunity to compete with the best student teams worldwide, but also a unique chance to develop cutting-edge technologies with real applications in space exploration.Source: Faculty of Electrical Engineering and CommunicationRelated articles: