Team Polar
We are developing and autonomous solar-powered rover which will enable Antarctic researchers to explore the last unknown places of the Earth.Our team’s mission is to Pioneer a Zero Emission Antarctica and share knowledge. To do so we are developing the first of its kind solar-powered, autonomous rover which will facilitate research on Antarctica. This rover solves to need for an easy way of reaching distant locations. It does so by removing several critical factors for researching Antarctica, namely; dangerous terrain, expensive provisions and human capital. Currently, to travel on the content, researchers need to go with a vehicle attached to several trailers. These trailers are required to bring essential provisions such as food for the crew as well as kerosine for the vehicles and the specialized equipment. Making our vehicle autonomous and solar-powered we try to solve these logistical issues, optimizing the working process and decreasing execution costs. After the concept is fully developed the IP will be shared with the community of researchers. That way we will try to decrease further the costs of producing it and enhance more research to be executed on the continent. After this is done the team will research what are the other options for using this vehicle such as desert exploration or savana’s and try to customize it so it can work in those conditions. The vehicle itself will be a rover with a size of about 200x80x80 cm. Its circumference will be equipped with solar panels which will generate the required energy. Fortunately, the continent provides us with a 24 sunlight during Antarctic summers, when is the research period, too. During the winters these vehicles will be parked inside the research station.
Emil Mitrindzhakov
TU Eindhoven
Mechanical Engineering
Over het initiatief / About the initiative
Team Polar
In welke fase zit jouw initiatief? / In what stage is your initiative?
Uitgewerkt conceptfase
Heb je jouw initiatief al gevalideerd? / Did you validate your initiative?
For the last three years we have been working together with researchers to validate both the feasibility of our idea as well as the benefits. Both has been validated by numerous interviews as well as experiments on Antarctica. In December and January we had the chance to send two people on expedition to research what is the solar intensity on the continent. The data proved that we will be able to generate enough power from the solar panels to autonomously drive a vehicle.
Meer informatie over jouw initiatief / More info about your initiative
Our team’s mission is to Pioneer a Zero Emission Antarctica and share knowledge. To do so we are developing the first of its kind solar-powered, autonomous rover which will facilitate research on Antarctica. This rover solves to need for an easy way of reaching distant locations. It does so by removing several critical factors for researching Antarctica, namely; dangerous terrain, expensive provisions and human capital. Currently, to travel on the content, researchers need to go with a vehicle attached to several trailers. These trailers are required to bring essential provisions such as food for the crew as well as kerosine for the vehicles and the specialized equipment. Making our vehicle autonomous and solar-powered we try to solve these logistical issues, optimizing the working process and decreasing execution costs. After the concept is fully developed the IP will be shared with the community of researchers. That way we will try to decrease further the costs of producing it and enhance more research to be executed on the continent. After this is done the team will research what are the other options for using this vehicle such as desert exploration or savana’s and try to customize it so it can work in those conditions.
The vehicle itself will be a rover with a size of about 200x80x80 cm. Its circumference will be equipped with solar panels which will generate the required energy. Fortunately, the continent provides us with a 24 sunlight during Antarctic summers, when is the research period, too. During the winters these vehicles will be parked inside the research station.
Our team is in the third year of its existence. The first two years have been a research study and now we are building our first Minimum Viable Product. The aim is to finish this prototype by the end of the academic year, and next use this vehicle to exhibit some minor experiments.
The major roadmap in front of our team, three to four more years of development. For the next two years, our team will be developing a full scale prototype, where all main components will be separately developed. This prototype should have a working autonomous feature which should be able to understand the dangers an icy surface hides. Another main thing for this vehicle is that it should be able to gain enough energy via the solar panels and prove our current prediction models for power generation. Finally, regarding mechanical components, the vehicle should be able to withstand temperatures as low as -75Co and work until -45 Co .
Wat zijn jouw volgende stappen om het verder te ontwikkelen? / What are your next steps to develop the initiative?
According to the Technology readiness level (TRL) system our team is currently in the second stage and aims to achieve third and fourth by the end of this year. The goal for the fifth and six are for end of 2022 when the current prototype will be tested in sub-polar region during winter conditions. Then the seventh and eighth should be achieved in the academic 2023-2024 when the next full-scale prototype will be developed. Finally, the last ninth is aimed to be achieved by 2025 when the final concept should be built and tested on Antarctica.
Wat heb je nodig om (nog meer) impact te maken met dit initiatief? / What do you need to make (more) impact with this initiative?
What we need is firstly to build the vehicle and secondly let researchers use it. Doing so not only it will help towards making Antarctica the first continent to reach net-zero, but also it will allow researchers to understand some of the secrets for tackling Global Warming hidden under the ice.