NASA Space Robotics Challenge
The Space Robotics Challenge Phase 2 (SRC2) was a two-year NASA Centennial Challenge in which teams competed to solve challenging problems that were posed by NASA. SRC2 challenged teams to develop technologies to enable a team of lunar rovers to have increased levels of autonomy and cooperation when performing tasks such as resource localization and retrieval and was motivated by the current NASA Artemis program.
SRC2 required robots to operate fully autonomously and was based on a gazebo-simulated moon environment. There were two rounds of competition. In the first round, which was a qualifying round, the teams were required to complete individual tasks to demonstrate capabilities, such as finding resources while maintaining localization and excavating resources. In the second round a team of six heterogeneous robots was required to find volatile resources, then excavate these volatile and return them to a processing plant. With three distinct robot types at play—scouts for detection, excavators for retrieval, and haulers for transportation—the challenge was not merely technical but also a test of coordination and cooperation. To complete the task the robots had to navigate the harsh environment fully autonomously for a two-hour stretch with a very limited sensor package.
WVU Team Mountaineer got 6th place out of 114 teams and was awarded a $45,000 prize in total. Being the best position for a US university, and among the only 7 solutions that completed the challenge mission.
In my role as Perception lead for the SRC2 project, I worked on the development of a multi-robot object detection system and terrain analysis algorithm which empowered our team's robots to navigate, perceive, and interact with the simulated lunar environment. Moreover, I took charge of developing intricate approach maneuvers that dictated how our robots would engage with each other and their surroundings throughout the competition. An example is how the hauler robot was able to align itself and park next to the excavator robot to drop the collected resources into its bin.
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