DLR SpaceBot Cup 2013: A Space Robotics Competition

Abstract

In November 2013, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Bonn hosted the SpaceBot Cup, Germany’s first of its kind space robotics competition. The scenario is set in a planetary exploration environment with some manipulation tasks. Ten entrants had eight month to define, develop, and build robotic systems and the according ground station setup to conduct a remote testbed mission. Then, the robotic element(s) were deployed onto a sparsely known planetary surface and had to conduct exploration of the environment, find and collect two artificial objects, and mount them to a third object. Communication between ground control station and planetary surface was limited and impaired by delay, making autonomous functionality crucial for the success of the mission. In this report, the motivation, scenario, tasks, and final competition event of the DLR SpaceBot Cup 2013 are presented.