Surrey Space Centre wins prestigious robotics award
Two academics from the Surrey Space Centre were among the stars at this year’s International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) when they claimed first prize in the Best Poster Award category.
The out-of-this-world MARCEL was the subject of the award-winning poster
The prestigious annual event, which was held in Canada and Australia in 2018 and 2019, was a virtual event in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But that didn’t stop the worldwide robotics community coming together to launch a stellar series of virtual events to discuss the latest innovations and technology.
Among those involved were the University’s Professor Yang Gao and Dr Arthur Bouton, who submitted an entry on ‘Opportunities and Challenges in Space Robotics’. Their poster, MARCEL: A Mobile Active Rover Chassis for Enhanced Locomotion, explains their research and the creation of a lunar vehicle chassis design capable of exploring challenging terrain. This work was carried out under the FAIR-SPACE project with funding from UK Research and Innovation, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the UK Space Agency.
Against global competition, Surrey’s entry won first prize.
An extract from the award-winning poster, which can be downloaded in full via the link above
“It’s particularly empowering to get such recognition from a global event as prestigious and high-impact as ICRA,” says Dr Arthur Bouton, the post-doctoral researcher whose work was featured.
Professor Yang Gao, the project lead, commented: “This award adds more international recognition to our work at Surrey Space Centre, which has a rich heritage of more than 40 years in space research and education.
“The new knowledge and technology produced from this research are crucial to future exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
Learn more about Surrey Space Centre.