01
Chassis
Six-wheel rocker-bogie · independent drive
Equalised contact across uneven terrain. Differential coupling lets the rover crawl over obstacles up to a wheel diameter tall without lifting.
— Mars Rover Students Club
India’s student rover team,out of IIITDM Kancheepuram.
We design, build, and field autonomous rovers for international competition — IRC, ISDC, IRoC-U.
— Mars Rover Students Club
India’s student rover team,out of IIITDM Kancheepuram.
2025–26 Season
Three flagships. Three results on the international board.
- 0th
IRC
International Rover Challenge 2026
Space Robotics Society · Manipal
Top-10 finish in our second consecutive year.
- 0th
ISDC
International Space Drone Challenge 2026
Space Robotics Society · Manipal
Aerial counterpart to the rover programme.
- Innovation
AwardSHAASTRA
Caterpillar Autonomy Challenge 2026
IIT Madras
Design Innovation Award for Vetri's underbelly scooping mechanism — debuting at IIT Madras's flagship technical fest.
Spec sheet · across our rovers
6wheels
Rocker-bogie · independent drive
5DOF
Manipulator arm
80kg
Curb weight, payload-ready
2m/s
Top traverse speed
2km
Telemetry range
4cams
Stereo + nav + sci
ROS 2
Autonomy stack
30engineers
Mechanical · Electronics · Software
6wheels
Rocker-bogie · independent drive
5DOF
Manipulator arm
80kg
Curb weight, payload-ready
2m/s
Top traverse speed
2km
Telemetry range
4cams
Stereo + nav + sci
ROS 2
Autonomy stack
30engineers
Mechanical · Electronics · Software
02
Manipulator
5-DOF arm · interchangeable end-effectors
Sample collection, valve actuation, equipment servicing. The underbelly scooping variant earned SHAASTRA's Design Innovation Award.
03
Electronics
Custom PCBs · CAN bus · onboard compute
Power distribution, motor control, and sensor stacks designed in-house. Telemetry over long-range radio plus 5GHz video downlink.
04
Autonomy
ROS 2 · SLAM · vision-language perception
Path planning, obstacle avoidance, and mission sequencing. Increasingly autonomous each season — the long game is full-mission autonomy.
Recruitment closed · Next intake March 2027