After the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 Vikram on the lunar surface and the exploration of the southern pole of the moon, ISRO is gearing up for future robotic exploration missions to the Moon and other celestial bodies. ISRO is committed to creating unique opportunities for academia & industry to participate in the technology developmental activities commensurate with organisational objectives. In line with this vision, U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC)/ISRO solicits from the youth of India, innovative ideas and designs of robotic rovers for future missions through the conduct of a space robotics challenge with an objective to provide development opportunities in space robotics to the participating entities and to leverage the creative thinking among the youth of our Nation for ISRO interplanetary missions.

To provide the opportunity for the students in the area of space robotics, “ISRO Robotics Challenge-URSC 2024 (IRoC-U 2024)” is organised with a tagline of “Let’s build a space robot”. The challenge consists of an engineering project where the Institutional teams build robots to compete in an extra-terrestrial-inspired arena, performing tasks based on the real-life challenges faced by space robotics. This is an invitation for the student community for the design and realisation of a ‘Wheeled/Legged Rover’ encompassing the development of complete hardware and software. The solutions provided by the students in IRoC-U 2024 have a greater chance of getting incorporated into ISRO’s future interplanetary robotics missions.

Objectives of the Challenge

• To provide a standardised platform for exploring the area of space robotics.
• To develop a deeper understanding of space robotics and its applications among the student community. It enhances their communication, collaboration, inquiry, problem-solving and flexibility skills which will benefit them in their academic and professional lives.
• To co-develop (students and ISRO) future technologies needed in the area of space robotics.

Outcome for Student Community

• Identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of mathematics, science and engineering.
• Apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs.
• Communicate effectively.
• Collaborate with a team, provide inclusive leadership, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.
• Formulate and conduct appropriate experiments, analyse and interpret test and analytical data and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions.

Further details of the challenge are here