CIRC 2025 Competition Tasks

Welcome to CIRC 2025! This competition is designed to challenge students to design, build, and operate a rover that can navigate and complete tasks on a simulated Martian surface alongside human settlement. These tasks are intended to be challenging and will require teams to use their problem-solving skills and technical knowledge to succeed. The following task descriptions and guidelines have been established to ensure a fair and safe competition for all participants. Please read through these descriptions carefully to make sure that your design suitable to the tasks at the competition.

For information on the regulations of participating in CIRC, please see the 2025 Rules document.

Task Rubrics and Scoring

Tasks will be scored using a rubric which will be made available to all competitors before the event. This may be useful for planning how to approach each task’s requirements and maximize scored points within the capabilities of the teams’ rovers. Individual tasks are expected to be worth 100 points each, however longer tasks may have more points allocated. Most tasks have bonus points available according to the rules, with exceptions to these bonuses explained in the specific task descriptions below.

Arm Dexterity

Description

A cargo shuttle is scheduled to return to orbit, carrying essential scientific samples. However, an incoming solar storm threatens to disrupt the mission. The shuttle must be fueled, prepared, and launched within the next hour as the solar storm will cause interference with the shuttle’s guidance and communication systems, making a launch impossible.

The shuttle uses a quick-connect fueling system that must be configured manually, requiring careful attention to the operation manual. Given the tight deadline and damage to the shuttle from a previous crash landing, some safety overrides may be necessary to expedite the fuel transfer. Due to these risks, it is unsafe for personnel to be present at the site, and all tasks must be carried out remotely by your rover. With limited fuel and time, your team must prioritize the loading of key samples based on the amount of fuel successfully transferred.

Once the fuel transfer is complete and all possible cargo has been loaded, your team must prep the shuttle by detaching the fuel hose, disconnecting the power cable, and manually closing the lander panels. The final critical step: initiate the launch sequence before the solar storm hits.

It’s up to your team and your rover to complete this complex sequence of tasks under immense time pressure, ensuring the samples reach orbit safely.

Requirements

Attach a quick connect hose fitting to the shuttle for refueling:
1. Details of the fitting will be provided as available. Expect to connect the hose by pushing the fitting in, and disconnect the hose by pulling a spring-loaded collar. The collar is planned to be modified for easier gripping.
Interact with a variety of buttons, levers, and switches to adjust settings or resolve problems with the fueling system or shuttle, by observing data readouts and using information provided in the Operation Manual:
1. The specific requirements will be randomized per team, but expect to manipulate all buttons, levers, and switches for perfect completion.
Load as much cargo as possible into the shuttle:
1. Teams will need to estimate the amount of cargo appropriate to load depending on the amount of fuel successfully transferred using the Operation Manual guidelines. Loading an incorrect amount of cargo will be reflected in scoring.
2. Details of the cargo will be provided as available. Expect to choose between multiple sizes of items ranging from 0.3kg to 3kg, with at least one handle for grasping.
Prepare the shuttle and initiate launch:
1. Disconnect the refueling hose.
2. Disconnect the power cable.
3. Close the shuttle doors.
4. Press the launch button and clear the area.

Documentation Provided

Task documentation will be provided as it is created in advance of the event. Review the 2024 task documentation for a preview of the shuttle (lander) and types of documentation provided.

Diagram of the Fuel Control Panel including locations of buttons, switches, and displays.
Diagram of the Shuttle including location of fuel and power receptacles
Operation Manual for operation of the Shuttle and Fuel Control Panel
Diagram of the hose fittings and power cable
Diagram and weights of the cargo to load onto the shuttle

Judge’s Commentary

The task requirements are intended to be approachable in many ways and some may be completed out-of-order.
If a team is unable to complete part of the task with their rover and unable to progress, a Major Intervention may be called to skip this step. No score will be given for the skipped step, and the usual intervention penalty will be applied. Steps that don’t directly block progress such as cargo loading or fuelling can not be skipped.
The task area for this event will be outside of the event center and wired communication will not be possible.
This task will involve liquid water and may result in spills, leaks, or spray if controls are mis-operated.

Boneyard Salvage Assessment

Description

With the Solar Storm fast approaching and the settlement MARSDU reactor undergoing an emergency refueling, Settlement Operations is evaluating reactivating a mothballed reactor from a previous settlement. Due to the reactor being mothballed in a boneyard far away from our facilities your rover will be dispatched to assess the area to determine if the reactor and its components could be re-used, and if the area is safe for human crews to begin salvage operations.

Your rover must explore the boneyard to locate and identify the mothballed reactor, control rods, coolant lines, transformer, and any other pieces of equipment not related to the reactor. Simultaneously your rover should be assessing the boneyard for hazards to the salvage crew such as possible rockslide areas, ozone and hydrogen leaks from equipment stored there, and radiation. A Geiger counter will be provided to your rover to help assess radiation hazards and will output readings to your rover. At the end of the task, teams will have 2 hours to submit a brief inspection report form via google forms to conclude if the reactor can be salvaged and if the site is safe for human salvage crews.

Requirements

Record the GPS coordinates of the starting position.
Locate the Reactor
1. Record the possibe power output, does it fit requirements?
2. Record its GPS coordinates and distance from the start position.
3. Record the radioactivity from the provided Geiger Counter.
4. Identify to the judge any damage to the reactor casing.
Locate the Beryllium Control Rods
1. Record their GPS coordinates and distance from the start position
2. Record the number of damaged and undamaged control rods.
3. Record the radioactivity from the provided sensor
4. Identify/document any compromised control rods.
Locate the Coolant Lines
1. Record their GPS coordinates and distance from the start position
2. Record the number of damaged, repairable, and undamaged coolant lines.
3. Record the radioactivity from the provided sensor.
4. Identify/document any compromised coolant lines.
Locate Possible Hazards to Personnel in the Boneyard
1. Identify/Document any areas of possible environmental damage to boneyard infrastructure (eg. rockslides, wind damage)rockslides.
2. Test stored equipment areas for ozone or hydrogen leaks
3. Document any areas of high radioactivity
4. Document any significant geological hazards (eg. unstable slopes, impassable terrain).
Complete the Brief Inspection Report Form
1. Conclude if the Reactor equipment is salvageable and explain your decision.
  1. Does the Reactor have a minimum output of 5 MW? A Maximum of 10 MW
  2. Are there at least 4 control rods without bends, warps, or cracks?
  3. Are there at least 4 reels of coolant lines without holes or cracks?
2. Conclude if the area is safe for human salvage crews and explain your decision.
  1. Are there any traces of Ozone or Hydrogen within the Boneyard?
  2. Are there any areas of radiation above 50 mSv? Are these areas within 2m of the equipment?
  3. Are there any areas of possible or past rockslides?
3. Is there other available equipment in the boneyard?

*NOTE: This Reactor and boneyard was constructed by a cooperative mission between two of CIRC’s sister organizations; Канадский международный конкурс роботов, and 加拿大国际机器人挑战赛 respectively. As such, many component labels may not be in English. A translation guide will be provided to assist in identification of components and panels.

Details about the Geiger Counter and the Translation Guide will be provided in April 2025 or earlier.

M&M

Description

An astronaut’s life support unit is signaling they have sustained a grave injury. Rovers are tasked with locating the astronaut, determining if they are still alive and returning them to the med bay for evaluation. Rovers also need to survey the incident area and collect evidence before it is destroyed by the solar storm. Based on the evidence, teams will determine the primary suspect.

Requirements

Prior to disturbing the scene, take a photo of the incident site, including any evidence close to the astronaut.
Determine the status of the astronaut by reading the life status indicator on their chest.
1. The life status indicator will be an LED indicator, where Green is healthy and Red is dead.
Return the astronaut to the marked medical bay by the base station
1. For full points, the astronaut must be returned without sustaining additional injury. This will be determined using a G-force indicator.
There are several pieces of evidence scattered around the incident site, photograph and scan them for “DNA” label
1. “DNA” labels are identified using AruCo markers.
2. Full points for scanning will be awarded if the Aruco scanning and detection software is running in the background and automatically displays the correct result when the Aruco marker comes within range and frame of the camera.
3. Details on AruCo markers are listed in the Autonomy Guidelines
Return the murder weapon to the med bay
1. For full points, rovers will need to carry the murder weapon, in order to not contaminate the evidence. Dragging will earn partial points
After scanning the evidence, make an initial conclusion on who the primary suspect is on the provided worksheet. Reference DNA samples of on-base staff will be provided to teams.
Any photos and the worksheet must be submitted to the judges prior to the end of teams tear down time/ the leaving of the site, whichever comes first. Team will need to provide a labeled USB for submission of materials.

Reactor Maintenance

Description

The settlement Modular Advanced Rafalowski System Deuterium Reactor (MARSDU Reactor) is in need of a fueling cycle and the timing could not be worse!

The solar storm is fast approaching. When it hits, it will come with unknown intensity or duration. Maintenance outside of the protective settlement shelter will be impossible. All routines that can be done prior to the storm must be handled immediately!

Your team will dispatch a rover to the reactor, eject the depleted fuel rods and insert fresh replacements. While doing this, your team will also have to carefully manage the reactor criticality – avoiding both subcritical stall outs and dangerous supercritical conditions. Your rover will also have to handle all fuel bundles with care and avoid dropping them.

Requirements

Approach the front side of the reactor
Depressurize the cooling system
1. Actuate the drain valve
2. Wait until the cooling water level drops into the maintenance region
3. Un-actuate the drain valve
4. Do not over-drain the coolant system!
Open access hatch
1. There is no latch, simply pull the door open
Analyze the reactor state
1. Use the supplied Geiger counter to identify which fuel rods are depleted.
2. Report this to the judge.
Replace fuel rods
1. Remove any depleted rods.
2. Replace them with fresh ones from the storage area
3. Maintain reactor temperature within the nominal range at all times by modulating the control rods.
4. The control rods can be moved in and out by actuating buttons on the front of the reactor. See the Reactor Manual for more information.
Close access hatch
1. Push the hatch closed
Re-pressurize the cooling system
1. Activate the coolant pump
2. Wait until the cooling water level rises into the operating region.
3. Deactivate the coolant pump
4. Do not overfill the coolant system!
Transport fuel rods to the designated disposal station.
1. A portable fuel rod containment unit is stored next to the reactor, but you may opt to use another way to transport the fuel rods.
2. Carry the fuel rods to the disposal station.
3. Place the fuel rods inside the disposal station. You do not need to remove them from the portable fuel rod containment unit.

Geiger counter notes:

The Geiger counter will be supplied to the teams at the start of setup time and should be mounted onto the rover. It will communicate with the rover via a serial interface (details to follow) Hold the geiger counter near each fuel rod and use the readings to determine if the fuel cell is depleted.

Traversal

Description

The solar storm is interfering with communications from Environmental Monitoring Stations, preventing normal data collection operations. Your rover must brave the storm and visit all the stations to record the valuable information. The storm is expected to briefly spike sometime in the next hour, therefore rovers should be ready to move to a Certified Rover Storm Shelter until the worst of the storm has passed. Some of the Environmental Monitoring Stations have partially working GPS transponders, and others have a trail of lights leading to them. Missing digits in the GPS coordinates will need to be filled in with information gathered from other Environmental Monitoring Stations.

Requirements

This task takes place during nighttime when it is dark.
Rovers must travel to different locations and identify the number on the Environmental Monitoring Station.
1. Environmental Monitoring Stations will be marked with an Aruco marker and a human-readable marker.
  1. More points will be awarded for correctly identifying the Aruco marker.
  2. The markers will be on the top surface of the Environmental Monitoring Station.
  3. The markers are not illuminated.
2. The Environmental Monitoring Stations may come in different sizes and shapes. They will all be on the ground.
3. Your rover does not need to pick-up or interact with the Environmental Monitoring Stations other than reading the markers.
There are 6 Environmental Monitoring Stations.
3 locations will have GPS coordinates.
3 locations have a trail of lights leading to the Environmental Monitoring Stations.
1. 1 trail of lights be in the visible spectrum and will be red in colour.
2. 1 trail of lights be in the visible spectrum and will be blue in colour.
3. 1 trail of lights will be in the infrared spectrum (940nm).
4. The start location of the light trails is not provided.
5. The length of the light trail is not known.
6. The lights in the trail will be a maximum of 6m apart.
7. The Environmental Monitoring Station will be within 2m of the final light in the trail.
8. The lights will be on the ground.
When task time starts the rover operators will be given a timer which indicates the time until the spike in the solar storm activity. The rover must be positioned in the Certified Rover Storm Shelter when the timer reaches zero.
1. The rover must remain in the Certified Rover Storm Shelter for 1 minute to earn full points.
2. The length of the timer is not provided in advance
3. The Certified Rover Storm Shelter shares a location with one of the Environmental Monitoring Stations with GPS coordinates.
4. Failing to safely protect your rover in the Certified Rover Storm Shelter does not prevent you from continuing the task, but points associated with this action will be lost.
5. Physical dimensions of the Certified Rover Storm Shelter will be provided by April 2025 or earlier.
Some locations will be difficult to reach and may involve obstacle avoidance and may not be within line of sight of the antenna location.
The GPS coordinates and variable definitions will be provided during setup time. The start location is not a GPS coordinate.
1. Some GPS coordinates will not be fully defined and will contain variables.
2. Example: 51.4707A, -112.7527B where A is the value of the Aruco marker at the end of the trail of red lights and B is the value of the Aruco marker at the end of the trail of blue lights.
  1. If the value of scanned Aruco marker for A is 23 then substitute 23 for the A to get 51.470723.
3. Teams that have successfully navigated to an Environmental Monitoring Station, but failed to scan the Aruco marker may request the value from the judge by forfeiting the points associated with scanning.
To get full points for finding the Environmental Monitoring Station at a location, the human-readable marker or the Aruco marker must be visible on a rover camera or sensor. This should be visible to the judge at the base station to be awarded full points.
Full points will be awarded if the Aruco scanning and detection software is running in the background and automatically displays the correct result when the Aruco marker comes within range and frame of the camera.
Extra points will be awarded to teams who can reach a location autonomously.
This task has some exemptions to the intervention rules regarding the placement of the rover.
1. For the purposes of attempting autonomous navigation only, the rover may be freely placed at the start line or within 1m of a waypoint that has already been reached autonomously. The judge should be informed if you wish to attempt this. There will be no intervention penalty for this action.