MR2 KAIST Selected as a URC 2026 Finalist

We are proud to share that MR2 KAIST has been selected as a finalist for the University Rover Challenge 2026. This milestone reflects months of design, fabrication, software integration, and field testing across the entire team.

We are also grateful for the thoughtful review of our SAR package and for the time the URC judges invested in evaluating this year’s submissions. URC 2026 was highly competitive, with 116 teams entering the season and 83 teams ultimately submitting SAR packages, which makes this finalist selection especially meaningful for our team.

Our 2026 rover program is built around a major redesign documented in our System Acceptance Review (SAR). This year’s system emphasizes modularity, reliability, and field-ready autonomy, with major upgrades across the rover hardware, communications stack, software, and science workflow. Those efforts were backed by repeated integration and endurance testing in outdoor environments as we prepared for this season.

We are grateful to everyone who helped us reach this stage, including our teammates, mentors, sponsors, and supporters. We are now focused on the final stretch of testing and preparation as we head toward the URC 2026 finals. See you in Utah.