The Rover Phoenix, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s Mars Rover team, secured 4th position among the 40 teams in the UK University Rover Challenge (UKURC) held at Manchester, UK from July 23-24, 2016. Twelve teams were finally selected for the competition. Amrita student Aditya Pattiveri attended the competition and won the ‘Mark Watney’ prize and also won the hearts of the people in UK Mars Rover Competition.
Aditya was the only member of his team able to travel due to problems getting visas. He worked extremely hard, and with a great Rover, he did amazing things. Impressing everyone with his attitude and results, a prize was created to reflect this, the ‘Mark Watney’ prize (because he was ALL ALONE at the competition to present his team’s Rover). It is hoped that this prize may be kept to reflect a special individual contribution during the competition in future years.
Rover Phoenix is a multidisciplinary team formed by a group of young and enthusiastic students who are really passionate about Robotics. The team comprises of students from Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics and Computer Science Engineering. The team participates in robotics competitions conducted at the national level, as well as international level.
Last year the team participated in 2015 University Rover Challenge conducted by Mars Society at Mars Desert Research Station, Hanksville, Utah, United States and secured 20th position.
