Lunar Builders: Robotic Arm Challenge

Robotic arms assembling red blocks on a platform, with some blocks stacked in the foreground.

Introduction

Welcome to the Lunar Builders: Robotic Arm Challenge, co-organised by the UK’s Satellite Applications Catapult (SAC) and the European Space Agency’s Spaceship from the European Center for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ESA Spaceship ECSAT).

The Catapult and ESA are calling you to sign up for an exciting challenge, where university students will program a two-armed robot to assemble structures using lunar regolith blocks – both in simulation and with real hardware. Collaborate in a team to tackle real-world engineering problems, showcase your creativity, and compete for recognition in innovation and technical excellence. Whether you’re looking to demonstrate your skills, gain hands-on robotics experience, or simply push the boundaries of what’s possible, this hackathon is the perfect opportunity to build, learn, and innovate.

The Challenge: Building in Space 

Imagine you’re on a lunar mission, tasked with building critical infrastructure out of locally sourced materials. How do you make it happen? This is your opportunity to answer that question.

Teams will put their skills to the test by programming a robotic system to achieve a set of assembly challenges, using blocks that represent what in the future could be the literal building blocks of structures on the moon and beyond.

ESA have been working on creating blocks from lunar space dust – read an example of that here – and now you have the opportunity to explore what role robots might have in building structures from these blocks.

Whether you’re testing your wall against simulated forces or designing the most efficient build strategy, your objective is to work as a team, produce the most elegant algorithms, and communicate your results effectively.

How it Works 

The hackathon is split into two main phases:

Phase 1: Simulation

In the first phase, teams will work in a virtual environment to program a simulated two-armed robot. This phase provides teams the opportunity to focus on developing their problem-solving strategies, algorithms, and control logic without the constraints of physical hardware.

The system will be based on the real-life UR10e robots by Universal Robots, each equipped with a Realsense depth camera sensor and two-finger gripper.

The software will utilise the ROS2 framework (Humble) and the simulation environment will be in Gazebo.

Using the provided simulation tools, teams will test and refine their code to achieve optimal performance from a set of challenges building structures out of lunar regolith blocks.

By the end of this phase, teams should have a well-tested and effective software solution, and a well-documented codebase. They will be asked to present their key results in a short live presentation, where they get the chance to show off their skills.

Deployment on real hardware does not need to be demonstrated.

Phase 2: Hackathon Weekend

In the second phase, the winners from phase 1 will be invited to an in-person event to celebrate their achievements and work together to put what they learnt into practice!

 

This phase introduces real-world challenges, such as dealing with hardware limitations, sensor noise, and physical obstacles. Teams will adapt their simulated solutions to function effectively in the real-world setup, ensuring that the robot can autonomously build a regolith block structure successfully.

Major Milestones 

Phase 1

Phase 2

What will you gain? 

Prizes 

The winning teams will gain:

Rules