Robocol is an interdisciplinary student initiative in Universidad de los Andes, with the purpose of fostering technical and soft skills of its members in the fields of technology, science, and creative design applied to robotics. Our team has developed an educational outreach strategy that focuses on building a robotics ecosystem for Colombia.

The rover project has more than 10 years of experience developing knowledge in the field and participating in various international competitions. It started in 2010, sending rover designs to NASA’s Lunabotics competition. More recently, we participated in ERC2020, achieving 3rd place in general, and won the best planetary map award. We participated in URC 2022, and URC 2024, and were ranked the highest placed Latin American team in both competitions.

In March 2024, we started the first complete redesign of the rover, leveraging the experience and knowledge that the previous design cycle had amassed. This new rover’s name is Martian Autonomous Rover for Investigation and Assistance, or M.A.R.I.A. for its initials.