This year, the FHNW Rover Team successfully competed in the European Rover Challenge (ERC) for the fourth time – an international competition where student teams put their self-developed Mars rovers to the test on demanding terrain. For the first time, the students from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland integrated Blickfeld LiDAR sensors into their platform and achieved fifth place among 25 finalists.
Project Goal: An Autonomous Rover for Mars Exploration
Initiated and led by students, the project aims to build a rover capable of autonomously navigating a simulated Martian surface while performing tasks such as maintenance, sampling, and exploration.
A major focus of this year’s development cycle was optimizing the localization and navigation system. In addition to a stereo camera and an accelerometer, the team now relies on a 3D LiDAR sensor from Blickfeld. The sensor provides rich depth information, enabling higher-precision navigation as well as real-time terrain mapping.
Choosing Blickfeld Technology
The Blickfeld sensor was selected for its robustness, accuracy, and straightforward integration. The device is solid-state with no moving parts and offers flexible configuration of frame rate and resolution. During driving, a high frame rate ensures safe navigation, while when stationary, the system switches to high resolution to capture detailed environmental data or control the robotic arm with greater precision.
Another key advantage was the intuitive sensor software: point clouds are available quickly and with minimal effort. The team uses them for localization and mapping, analyzing changes between consecutive scans to precisely track rover movement while continuously updating the environmental map. As a result, the rover can autonomously adjust its path, avoid obstacles, and operate the robotic arm effectively – whether collecting samples or interacting with a maintenance board as required by the challenge.
European Rover Challenge – A Global Competition by the European Space Foundation
The European Rover Challenge has been organized by the European Space Foundation for more than ten years. The competition arena is modeled after a Martian landscape, complete with red sand, rocks, and hills. In several disciplines – including Navigation, Maintenance, Probing & Sampling, and Droning – teams from around the world put their robotic systems to the test under highly realistic conditions.
