2021 was the eventful year where our team managed to qualify for both of the two highly-esteemed international rover competitions -University Rover Challenge (URC) and the European Rover Challenge (ERC). Not only that, we also managed to qualify for the final rounds of ERC with flying colours – we secured the 6th position among 38 teams worldwide in the qualification round of ERC-2021 (Remote), and the 4th position among 58 teams worldwide in the qualification round of ERC-2021 (Onsite).
Although it was a tad bit upsetting that the URC-2021 finals had been cancelled due to Covid, our team was still pretty enthusiastic for the ERC 2021 onsite finals, which was to take place at Kielce University of Technology, Kielce, Poland.
Having combatted our rover Anweshan v3.0 with its four-wheel drive system, bar-differential suspension, stainless steel arm and everything else it needed, it was only a matter of time before we would travel overseas to Poland and compete with all the dozens of other ambitiously-designed rovers, crafted by prestigious teams from all around the world.
Unfortunately, however, the odds weren’t in our favour for the next part of the journey, as the covid-19 situation in Bangladesh took a turn for the worse. Cases were at an all-time high, and the Government issued a strict lockdown on all sorts of cross-country travel. Along with the resulting emotional turmoil the news brought about on everyone, it was truly disheartening how we, too, had no choice but to cancel our highly anticipated trip to Kielce.
Although for a moment this seemed like was a very sad turn of events for us, we considered this as nothing more than a pit-stop to our everlasting endeavour towards success and learning.
The remote version of ERC was still on the table for us, which we took part in from the comfort of our homes and managed to bag the 11th position out of a total of 38 teams that participated worldwide.
We are hopeful in our efforts that 2022 will be a more fortunate year for our team, when we will be able to showcase a newer, more innovative version of Anweshan alongside other Mars rovers form all around the globe.
