A team of QUT engineering students are representing Australia at NASA’s 2025 Lunabotics Challenge after receiving an invitation just days after returning from the Australian Rover Challenge (ARCh).
The ROAR (Remote Off-world Autonomous Robotics) team, one of the core QUT Robotics Club groups, stood out in the Excavation and Construction task, where their rover Perseus excavated the most regolith (the rock and soil ground layer) of any team – a feat driven by their unique bucket design.
It’s the latest development linking QUT to the Australian Space Agency’s 10-year roadmap to support the growth of robotics and automation capabilities on Earth and in space.
This includes the launch of Yandiwanba at QUT, the largest covered facility for the testing of field robotics and equipment in realistic moon conditions in Australia, and the university’s continued involvement with the Perseverance rover mission on Mars.
“We came seventh overall and fourth out of the Australian teams at the ARCh,” said Aidan Lipinski, ROAR team lead. Aidan is studying a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronics).
Just four days after returning from the national competition, the group learned they had been invited to compete at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Perseus, the rover they designed and built for ARCh, is the centrepiece of their Lunabotics campaign.
“Its primary capabilities have been tailored for ARCh: full teleoperation over a network connection without line of sight to the rover. This includes cameras, driving and operation of sub-systems,” Aidan said.
Built on the QUT Gardens Point campus, Perseus, now in its second iteration, is a four-wheeled lunar rover.
“The chassis is primarily welded aluminium with extrusions allowing for different parts and modular sub-assemblies to be bolted on,” Aidan said.
“It runs ROS2 on a Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano, with a Raspberry Pi5 handling camera encoding. Perseus can go fast and not get bogged down in the sand and possesses a bucket capable of lifting 15 kilograms.”
Associate Professor Thierry Peynot, the team’s academic mentor since 2022, praised the team’s growth and achievements.
“On their very first participation they achieved an impressive ranking of fourth, ahead of several more experienced teams,” he said.
“Since then, the students of the club have improved their design and their operation each year, and I have continuously been impressed by their incredible skills including technical ability, creative thinking, persistence, resilience, and smart, quick thinking under pressure.
“In addition to great runs at the Australian challenge in 2023, 2024 and 2025, they’ve now been rewarded by an invitation by NASA to the Lunabotics Challenge, which is an amazing opportunity and a great showcase of what QUT students can do!”
Joining the Robotics Club on the first day of his course, Aidan says he was inspired by his time competing in a number of science and engineering challenges during high school.
“I had a number of chances to visit the Gardens Point campus, including Robotronica, the STEM summit program and open days where I loved the campus and particularly the projects on display,” he said.
“I love the people and projects that the Robotics Club has consistently run throughout the last few years. After my first full year on the project, I decided to apply for the team lead position. This is where I have been working hard for the last year, primarily coordinating the development required to upgrade Perseus, taking from the many lessons learned of the team’s previous years competing.”
The wider ROAR team is made up of students from diverse backgrounds with a shared passion for robotics, including Huon Swales, James Nichol and Maurice Blake.
The team’s web UI lead Huon is studying a Bachelor of Engineering, majoring in Mechatronics, and says he joined the club to further accelerate his studies and meet new people.
“I chose Mechatronics as it combines my interests in electronics and programming and gives me the skills to create robotics-based solutions,” he said.
Always enjoying making things and taking them apart, software lead James is studying a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (Mechatronics) with a double major of Computer and Software Systems.
“The Robotics Club seemed like a good way to meet like-minded people who shared my hobbies. My favourite part is working on Perseus, though I do also enjoy competing in the Droid Racing Challenge when it rolls around,” he said.
Maurice too loved tinkering as a kid. He is studying a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronics) with a minor in Physics.
“I couldn't settle between software or hardware projects; I just wanted to learn and do everything,” he said.
Preparations for Lunabotics began immediately after ARCh.
“The whole team has been putting in lots of hours to get Perseus ready for travel,” Aidan said.
“The short turnaround time has been the greatest challenge as we had barely unpacked from ARCh when we got the word that we needed to be ready for travel again.”
The students are now looking forward to connecting with their international peers and visiting NASA, and say they are grateful for the support of the QUT Faculty of Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics, the Guild, CSIRO and the QUT Centre for Robotics for their support, and to all the team members who have been a part of ROAR.
“There is so much I am looking forward to,” Maurice said.
“Visiting NASA is a dream come true.”
Media contact:
Lauren Baxter
QUT Media
media@qut.edu.au
07 3138 2361 / 0407 585 901 (After Hours)
