Skip to content
The field·Team dossier

UW Robotics / UWRT (University of Waterloo)

UW Robotics has registered for the URC in every season from 2022 to 2026 and has not reached the finals sheet since 2019. The team has published its own diagnosis: the System Acceptance Review was the barrier, and the remedies it lists are submission-process changes rather than hardware changes. Its public record, 59 repositories, a written requirements report and a season roadmap, is stronger than most of the teams that do reach the field.

CTierNo finals result since 20192022–2026S-CENSUS
CanadaCountryWaterloo, OntarioS-UWRT-WIKI
15thBest overall rank2017, of 36 finals teams2017S-URC-HISTRESULTS
0Finals appearancesIn the 2022–2026 window2022–2026S-URC26-SCORES

What this team shows

  • The desk is the constraint, by the team’s own account; the report names the review as the recurring disappointment.
  • The engineering documentation is not the missing piece: 59 repositories, a requirements report and a roadmap.
  • The last finals, in 2019, was 33rd of 36 with three missions at zero.
  • Three requirements are worth copying: a drivetrain under 20 kg including electronics, a 48 V bus with per-rail fault isolation, and radio coverage in three orientations.

Identity and results

UW Robotics is based at the University of Waterloo and appears in the URC lists as UW Robotics or UWRT. It finished 15th, 22nd and 33rd in 2017–2019 and has not appeared in a finals score sheet since S-URC-HISTRESULTS. It is on every URC team list from 2022 to 2026 and in no score sheet in that period S-URC22-TEAMS S-URC23-TEAMS S-URC24-TEAMS S-URC25-TEAMS S-URC26-TEAMS. Tier C here denotes a registered team with no finals result in the window; the tier rule for teams with results is defined on the census page.

Year Rover SAR Science Delivery Equipment Autonomy Total Rank Field
2017 not published 80.7 80 10 0 55 225.7 15 36
2018 not published 75.2 82.61 28.5 6.75 0 193.05 22 36
2019 not published 87.02 63.2 0 0 0 150.22 33 36

2020 and 2021 ran without a finals field. From 2022 to 2026 the team appears on every team list and in no score sheet. In 2026 it registered for both the URC and the Canadian International Rover Challenge, and the season’s competition repository is named Sparky-CIRC-2026 S-UWRT-ROADMAP S-UWRT-GH.

Rover generations

2017–2019: unnamed finals rovers. The names on the team channel, Marauder, Kodiak, Argo and SCARLETT, are described as older test platforms, and none is tied to a finals year S-UWRT-YT.

Sparky (2026). The current rover, named in the 2026 competition repository; whether Sparky is a new machine or a rename is not stated S-UWRT-GH.

The 2026 roadmap. Registration for the URC on 29 October 2025 and for the CIRC on 1 November 2025. A preliminary design review follows on 3 December 2025, and the System Acceptance Review on 27 February 2026, with “top 36 teams advance”. The URC field competition runs from 27 to 30 May 2026, and the CIRC from 7 to 10 August 2026 S-UWRT-ROADMAP.

Subsystems

The 2025 technical report states requirements per subsystem, not as-built measurements. Mass, wheel diameter, arm actuators, the science instrument, battery capacity, radio model and on-board computer are not published S-UWRT-REPORT2025.

Drivetrain. Rocker-bogie; a minimum ground clearance of 1 m as the report states it; a drivetrain under 20 kg including the electronics box; custom airless tyres; climb a 15° slope; clear 20 cm obstacles; independent control on each wheel; arcade-controller teleoperation S-UWRT-REPORT2025.

Arm. At least 4 degrees of freedom; a maximum mass of 15 kg; lift and hold 5 kg; able to adjust the rover centre of mass after lifting a heavy object; interchangeable end-effector modules; grab a handle, flip a switch and push a button S-UWRT-REPORT2025.

Science. A maximum mass of 15 kg; dig and extract soil; analyse on board; seal and return the sample S-UWRT-REPORT2025.

Autonomy. Waypoint navigation on GNSS, with a VN-300 GNSS/INS named; AR-tag detection; large-obstacle avoidance as a lower priority; drivetrain control behind motion APIs S-UWRT-REPORT2025.

Power. A 48 V battery, per-rail monitoring, faulty-rail detection and disable, and an emergency kill switch S-UWRT-REPORT2025.

Communications. A 27 dBm telemetry radio at 900 MHz, 1 km beyond line of sight, a backup link with switchover, gimbal video relayed to the ground station, and links that work in at least three rover orientations S-UWRT-REPORT2025.

Software. QNX as the real-time operating system, with a thread-safe I2C device manager and a QNX driver for a BNO085 IMU; ODrive motor control; KiCad hardware designs; a ROS 2 Humble package for SIYI gimbal cameras S-UWRT-GH.

Mission performance

2017, 15th of 36. The best result in the record: 225.7 total, with science 80, delivery 10, autonomy 55 and equipment at zero S-URC-HISTRESULTS.

2018, 22nd of 36. Autonomy fell from 55 to 0, equipment rose to 6.75 and delivery to 28.5, and the total fell to 193.05 S-URC-HISTRESULTS.

2019, 33rd of 36. Delivery, equipment and autonomy were all zero, with the best SAR of the three finals at 87.02, and a total of 150.22 S-URC-HISTRESULTS.

2020–2026, no finals. The team’s own report treats the review as the barrier. The fixes it lists are to define the key selling points, to skip missions that are not high priority, to film each review section as its milestone completes, and to build an integration knowledge base S-UWRT-REPORT2025. It also warns against leaving the review video until the last minute.

A 3:44 review submission exists for 2025 against a field norm near 5:00, and a 2026 review was planned for 27 February 2026; neither season produced a finals row S-UWRT-YT S-UWRT-ROADMAP S-URC25-SCORES S-URC26-SCORES. Whether the submission was rejected or the team withdrew is not stated.

Lessons for a first build

  • Write the requirements report first. The team publishes requirements per subsystem, a priority split and a risk table before the hardware exists. That document is the one a first build should copy.
  • Choose which missions to attempt. “Not trying to accomplish all the missions, focus on the high-priority ones” is the team’s own remedy and matches the zero clustering in the score data S-UWRT-REPORT2025.
  • Record the review as the season runs. Each section filmed when its milestone completes removes the last-minute failure mode the team names S-UWRT-REPORT2025.
  • Design fault isolation and radio coverage in from the start. Per-rail fault isolation on a 48 V bus and coverage in three orientations are cheap at design time and expensive to retrofit S-UWRT-REPORT2025.
  • Documentation does not substitute for a finals slot. The public record is strong and the score sheet has been empty since 2019; the desk has to be planned as a milestone, not treated as paperwork.

What remains uncertain

What happened to the 2025 and 2026 review submissions, whether rejected, accepted and then declined, or never submitted, is not stated. Whether the 3:44 duration of the 2025 film mattered is inference; the field norm is near 5:00, and no rule is published on a minimum length. As-built mass, wheels, actuators, battery, radio and computer are unpublished, because the report gives requirements only. Whether Sparky is a new rover or a rename is not stated. Whether the URC remains the primary target, given the parallel CIRC registration and the CIRC-named 2026 repository, is also open.

Team sources

Sources for this page

  1. S-URC-HISTRESULTSURC results database: derived 2022–2026 statistics (§4–§5) and archived official results 2013–2019 (§7)Compiled from official URC results, 2026.Print copy
  2. S-URC22-TEAMSURC2022 Team List ("URC2022 Featured 99 Teams, 15 Countries")URC / The Mars Society, 2022.Original
  3. S-URC23-TEAMSURC2023 Team ListURC, 2023.Original
  4. S-URC24-TEAMSURC2024 Team ListURC, 2024.Original
  5. S-URC25-TEAMSURC2025 Team ListURC, 2025.Original
  6. S-URC26-TEAMSURC2026 Team ListURC, 2026.Original Archived copy
  7. S-UWRT-ROADMAP"Season 2026 UWRT Roadmap", public Confluence page: URC registration 2025-10-29, CIRC registration 2025-11-01, PDR 2025-12-03, SAR 2026-02-27 "top 36 teams advance", URC field 2026-05-27/30, CIRC 2026-08-07/10; per-subsystem feature list (battery estimator, failsafe manager, GPS <1 m, terrain-slope mode, object tracking)UW Robotics Team, 2025-10 → 2026.Original
  8. S-UWRT-GHGitHub org uwrobotics, 59 public repositories, last push 2026-08-10; QNX drivers (qnx-i2c-multi-device, Sensor_BNO085), ODrive (ros_odrive, ODrive-Custom, py_odrive), KiCad (MarsRoverElectricalKiCad, MarsRoverHardware), SIYI gimbal ROS 2 package, LCM ground station, Sparky-CIRC-2026UW Robotics Team, 2017 → 2026-08.Original
  9. S-UWRT-YTUW Robotics YouTube channel, SAR 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2025 ("UWRT URC 2025 SAR SUBMISSION", 3:44), CDR 2017; older platform tests (Argo, Kodiak, Marauder, Project SCARLETT)UW Robotics Team, 2017–2025.Original
  10. S-UWRT-REPORT2025"UW Robotics URC 2025 Technical report", public Confluence page. Contains: three season objectives; named leads; the SAR post-mortem ("trying to pass the System Acceptance Review", "not trying to accomplish all the missions", "not to delay the SAR review video until the last minute", "develop an integration knowledge base"); per-subsystem requirements (rocker-bogie, <20 kg drivetrain incl. e-box, custom airless tyres, ≥4-DOF arm ≤15 kg, 48 V bus with per-rail fault isolation, 27 dBm 900 MHz radio, 1 km NLOS, three-orientation link coverage, VN-300 GNSS); mission priority split; risk tableUW Robotics Team / University of Waterloo, 2025.Original
  11. S-URC25-SCORESURC2025 Official ScoresURC, 2025-06.Original
  12. S-URC26-SCORESURC2026 Official ScoresURC, 2026-05/06.Original Archived copy