For the first time, a student-built rover from the University of Miami navigated, excavated, and deposited material entirely on its own, marking a major milestone for the College of Engineering’s Lunabotics team.
Competing against more than 50 universities in NASA’s Lunabotics challenge, the team placed fourth in the autonomy category during the qualifying round at the University of Central Florida, highlighting a year of progress across mechanical design, electrical systems, and software integration.
“This was the first year we attempted full autonomy,” said Lizi Ebralidze, president of the University’s American Society of Mechanical Engineers chapter. “That combination of mechanical reliability, electrical efficiency, and autonomous capability is what made this year’s rover stand out.”
Building a more advanced rover
Each year, the Lunabotics team builds on its previous rover, refining core systems and competition strategy. This year, students focused on strengthening the rover’s mechanical and electrical foundation while advancing its autonomous capabilities.
The team upgraded the drivetrain with more powerful, resilient motors and gearboxes and improved the excavation and deposition systems developed in previous years, work led by student engineers Sarah Eng and Owen Duffy. The electrical subteam, led by Ahmed Ahmed, designed a fully functional system featuring custom printed circuit boards, encoders on every motor and actuator, and a sealed electronics enclosure, resulting in a more efficient and reliable machine that earned top points in energy performance.
Breakthrough in autonomy
The most significant advancement came in autonomy. Juan Giraldo, a freshman who joined the team this year, developed the team’s most advanced autonomy software to date, enabling the rover to complete competition tasks without manual input and helping the team place among the top performers in that category.
“For a team taking its first swing at autonomous operation, the moment was nothing short of euphoric,” said Abdullah Bin Jalal, the team’s vice president. “It was the kind of result that turns months of late nights and uncertainty into pure validation.”
One of the team’s biggest challenges was designing for an environment they could not fully test in advance.
“Like real-world missions to the Moon or Mars, we had to design systems without being able to recreate the exact conditions,” Ebralidze said. “We created virtual testing environments to test the rover’s software.”
Innovation through collaboration
The project required collaboration across disciplines, bringing together mechanical design, manufacturing, electrical systems, controls, software development, and project management into a single integrated rover.
Students also pointed to hands-on learning opportunities that allowed them to apply classroom concepts to real engineering systems, an experience that mirrors industry practice.
“Lunabotics taught us what engineering looks like beyond the classroom,” Ebralidze said.
The team was supported by faculty across the College of Engineering, including advisor Emrah Celik, Qingda Yang, and Dean Vincent Omachonu, who provided resources and funding. During the competition in Orlando, Russell Roberts, a doctoral student, served as the team’s competition advisor.
With a newly elected executive board taking over next semester, she expects the Lunabotics team to continue growing in both size and technical maturity.
“As one of the few organizations on campus that participates in hands-on engineering competitions at this scale, we’re continuing to attract motivated students who want to build real systems,” she said.
