Mouser Electronics, Inc.announces that it will be a major components sponsor of Mars Rover Manipal, a multi-disciplinary student team from Manipal University striving to design and build a next-generation extraterrestrial rover. Mars Rover Manipal is set to compete at the University Rover Challenge (URC) 2018, May 31 through June 2 at the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, Utah, USA.

“Electronics education is key to Mouser’s mission, going back to our company’s founding more than 50 years ago, when we focused on serving the education sector,” said Mark Burr-Lonnon, Mouser’s Senior Vice President of Global Service & EMEA and APAC Business. “We are proud to sponsor Mars Rover Manipal as they compete in the University Rover Challenge, which provides students with a platform for innovation and a chance to solve real engineering challenges.”

URC is an annual robotics competition organized by The Mars Society that features Mars rovers designed and developed by undergraduate students from around the world. The event will showcase 36 teams from all over the world shortlisted from the 95 applicants, including five teams selected from India. The successful Mars Rover Manipal team finished in eighth place at URC 2017 — the highest-placing team from Asia — and is excited to enter their rover, “Airawat,” in the URC 2018 competition. In addition to being Asia’s top team in URC 2017, Mars Rover Manipal won the inaugural Indian Rover Challenge, held in January 2018.

For the past two years, Mouser Electronics has been the components sponsor of Mars Rover Manipal. The team uses a variety of components and connectors available from Mouser to enable the rover’s capabilities in harsh environments. The rover employs SparkFun LIDAR lite V3 optical distance measurement sensor as a key component in its autonomous obstacle detection system. Additionally, the rover’s modular robotic arm, Power over Ethernet (PoE) communications system, and motor control systems use Phoenix Contactconnectors and injectors to support the functionalities required for Mars exploration.

With its broad product line and unsurpassed customer service, Mouser strives to empower innovation among design engineers and buyers by delivering advanced technologies. Mouser stocks the world’s widest selection of the latest semiconductors and electronic components for the newest design projects. Mouser Electronics’ website is continually updated and offers advanced search methods to help customers quickly locate inventory. Mouser.com also houses data sheets, supplier-specific reference designs, application notes, technical design information, and engineering tools.

About Mouser
Mouser Electronics, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is an award-winning, authorized semiconductor and electronic component distributor focused on rapid New Product Introductions from its manufacturing partners for electronic design engineers and buyers. The global distributor’s website, Mouser.com, is available in multiple languages and currencies and features more than 5 million products from over 700 manufacturers. Mouser offers 23 support locations around the world to provide best-in-class customer service and ships globally to over 600,000 customers in more than 220 countries/territories from its 750,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility south of Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit www.mouser.com.

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