Nationwide Lunar Robotics Competition of IIT Madras

The Lunar Rover Challenge is a space race competition conducted by Shaastra, the Annual Technical Festival of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in association with Team Indus, which is the only representative of India for the prestigious Google Lunar XPrize.

The winning robot stands a chance of flying to the moon as a part of Team Indus’s mission. All that is needed is that they now aim to bring the youth of the country to assist them in achieving this goal.

Students from across the country shall be racing to develop a working prototype of a Moon Rover Robot, and face a challenge similar to the Google Lunar X Prize. The top five teams would be recognized as the top engineering teams from across the country along with an award of Rs. 1 Lakh each, certificates, prestigious internships and advanced development kits to aid their path-breaking innovations in the future. But a far more special opportunity awaits the winning team. Its rover stands a shot at becoming a part of Team Indus’s mission to the moon and exploring the lunar surface, the purpose it was constructed for.

About the Competition:

The competition consists of three rounds, with the first round taking place at three centres across the country – IIT Delhi, VJTI Mumbai and IIT Madras. It is scheduled for late September and early October. 8 teams (+ 1 Waitlist Team) will be selected from each region. The selected teams will come to Shaastra 2014 for Round 2 that will be held during the first week of January, 2014. Selected teams shall then present a functioning prototype of their robot and try to impress the judges to land one of the five coveted spots in the Grand Finale of LRC. Finally, the third round shall test the actual robots on the exact problem statement, hence putting the months of hard work and ingenuity of the students to test in an actual lunar terrain scenario.

The competition serves the purpose of inspiring innovation and creation amongst all engineering students regardless of year or stream, and what better reward than the chance to reach out to the moon with the best in the business! With the bragging rights of having their creation up on the moon at stake, the teams across the country are gearing up and working hard as launch-day approaches.

The registrations for the competition closed on September 22, 2013.

IIT campuses across India

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Source: V C Keertana, click4college Specialist